Another Buttercrush
by a-closet-fan
Summary: A pointless story about Buttercup's crush on a boy who, she figured, would never go for it even though he most definitely and obviously is.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: A pointless, plotless two-shot about Buttercup's crush on a boy who, she figured, would never go for it even though he most definitely and obviously is.

ANOTHER BUTTERCRUSH

A/N: Ahaha this was for real supposed to be a oneshot. Anyway, I'm not very good at fluff or romance, but I still think that the greens deserve to have cute crushes on each other instead of just fighting all the time. I hope this overly long, unnecessary, and sort of trashy two-shot achieves that! Part 2 coming soon probably! (dont own ppg)

edited 4/25/20

* * *

PART 1

It had taken awhile, but they were friendly. Well, they still fought, but ya know she couldn't say she hated him. Like, she guessed, they were friends now considering everything they had been through together. He had even saved her ass a few times, which was a pleasant change for someone who was always having to save everyone else's ass all the time.

But it was still…weird? Especially lately 'cause he made her feel weird. A little. Like when he looked at her sometimes, she didn't really know what to do. It was hard to describe because he wasn't looking at her to fight or anything. He would just glance over, and she'd start to think about how she was probably standing weird, or how her hair was probably too messy, or like, what if she looked dumb, like her outfit or something.

She'd just start thinking about things she never really cared about before and thinking that way always made her feel like she was betraying herself. It just wasn't who she was. Like why would she care what he thought? And about her outer appearance nonetheless! It was dumb, especially since he had seen her worse off before. Hell, he had even caused it sometimes!

So, that was a new whole weird _thing_ she guessed she was dealing with now.

And to make it even worse, she would catch herself staring at him just like how all the other girls would from under their pretty, long eyelashes. Like in gym class, before they'd start the activities and Coach would make them stretch, and his arms would flex—and she noticed that now, but she hadn't before…and now she did.

It sucked because she wouldn't even realize she was staring until he'd look over and catch her, which was always humiliating. She would try to be casual about it, and thankfully, being the "cool" triplet (even though her sisters in no way thought she was the "cool" triplet) meant she had practice at smooth recoveries. But still, she'd always spend the rest of the day wondering if he really _knew_ what she was actually doing.

He'd never show any signs that he did. Usually, he'd just nod his head in hello, but lately, and this was a very, _very_ , new development, he'd also wink back at her. And that just made her feel even weirder!

When Bubbles found out (and promptly sworn to secrecy), she had said it all just sounded like Buttercup had a crush.

Well, she didn't say it so casually, and the whole "secret" thing may have been coerced. It _was_ Bubbles. She wasn't causal about anything when it came to stuff like this. Honestly, Buttercup still semi-wished she hadn't even found out. But one day Buttercup may have been feeling a little overwhelmed about the whole situation…and may have lashed out in anger…and then, may have had to explain herself to her tearful sister…and that may have been how Bubbles had found out.

And that's how Buttercup _also_ may have found out that she had a…crush?

At the moment, Bubbles was the only other person who knew, which meant Blossom did not know. Except she probably did because Blossom knew everything, but Buttercup had yet to tell her. Partly because Buttercup still didn't really believe it herself, but also because, well, she didn't want Blossom to be disappointed or something. Which was dumb, she was her sister.

Still, for now, one sister was enough, and well, Buttercup was overwhelmed, and Blossom's opinion mattered. Not that Bubble's opinion didn't! But she was so gun-ho about love, Buttercup could have confessed she had fallen in love with a rat and Bubbles would've been supportive. Blossom, on the other hand, was reasonable and weighed her options more than both Bubbles and herself did. She would be the one to tell Buttercup if these feelings were impulse, and whether to quit them or not.

And Buttercup wasn't sure if she wanted that just yet. She didn't feel particularly hurt by whatever was going on, and it wasn't like he was ugly. Plus, they were kind of friends now, so Buttercup was sort of okay with having a crush. If that's what this was of course, but Bubbles had seemed pretty positive.

Ya know, at times, it wasn't all so bad. It felt kind of like an adrenaline rush; having a secret of her own if she ignored Bubbles. So yeah, not bad, but (and she hated, _hated_ , admitting this) the whole "crush" thing made her feel nervous sometimes. And "nervous" was so far off the spectrum of emotions that she regularly dealt with. Like her stomach would feel like it had exploded, or it had been punched, or something when she'd suddenly see him in the hallways, or at lunch, or even just near her locker. She seriously felt sick when they all hung out, but especially when she knew she'd be alone with him.

And that would most definitely explain, if anyone ever asked, why she had been hovering over her own house for like ten extra minutes. Because she knew he was in there all alone, and if she went in, they would be all alone…together. Something she only knew because, on her way home from an emergency call, Bubbles had called to warn her.

Apparently, the rest of the group, which still felt weird to say, had gone out to their typical Diner for a bite to eat. Bubbles had informed her that Butch had volunteered to hang back and wait for her. When Buttercup had asked why (because Sal's was one of his top three places to eat, but it wasn't like she was keeping track), Bubbles let out an exasperated sigh and said, there was a game on or something. Then, Bubbles got real chipper and told her that Boomer thought that had been weird also since Butch loved the diner and hated both the teams that were playing. Which meant, if Bubble's expertise was anything to go by, this was "probably a way to get you alone Buttercup!".

To say the least, Buttercup's stomach had exploded into nervous fits. And well, hope?

So, after a few deep breaths, she finally swallowed the butterflies that had fluttered up to her throat and descended down to her front door. There was certainly no turning back now because Butch had super hearing, which meant he had most likely heard her dumbly large elephant feet dropdown.

So, like, fuck her life.

"Hey," She called out, opening the door and floating in after becoming acutely aware of how large her feet were all the sudden. She was also ninety-six percent sure she had monster gunk stuck in her hair.

" 'Sup." He was sprawled across the couch, his eyes flickered from the screen to her form, and she fought the urge to look away. "Save the day, Butts?" He smirked.

She took off her "work" boots and spent a little time examining the huge tear in her "work" dress. Bubbles would throw a fit. She was the one who liked this uniform. Buttercup, on the other hand, could confidently say she did not, it was a little too girly and short for her, so good riddance. The only reason she was wearing it was because she _had_ to. It was, of course, Bubble's turn to pick out the uniform they were supposed to wear that day.

She looked back up and threw on an easy grin, "Of course," she let out a sarcastic snort, "and before bed-time too."

Was that dumb? That was dumb. That was an inside joke with her family. Why would he ever get that? She tried pulling the dress down to cover more of her legs, as she grew even more uncharacteristically self-conscious.

His eyebrow quirked up, but nonetheless, he gave out a small sound of congratulations.

She stood idle for a moment and stared at him like a creep while he stretched and rubbed at his neck. Even though her mind wanted so desperately to focus on his broad, muscular, and perfectly toned arms, she shook it off and took a few steps forwarded into the living room.

"Good game?" She nodded towards the tv, thankful that she had something to focus on that wasn't him.

"It's shit."

She leaned forward on the back of the couch and crossed her arms, "Well, no wonder," she scrunched her nose in distaste, "It's the Seabirds and the Jets. They're both shit."

She looked out of her peripheral to see that he was looking at her with an amused smile.

Against her better judgment, she tore her eyes away from the tv to meet his and shared the smile…which lingered a bit too long…which she hoped he did not awkwardly notice. They were very close, given the fact that she was leaning on the couch, so she stood up straight once more and fiddled with her dress, directing her attention to the game a little longer.

They stood, well he sat, for a bit before they both opened their mouths to speak at the same time. Snapping his mouth shut, he gestured for Buttercup to talk first.

She stuck her thumb out towards the stairs, "I'm gonna go get ready, you cool down here?"

He nodded, "Yeah, totally."

"' Kay."

She floated upstairs, and then, like some kind of idiot, proceeded to play that very insignificant conversation in her head the whole time she showered and got dressed.

All in all, she had thought it had gone relatively well, a little quiet, and a bit rough in the beginning, but hey not her worst—still, it was nothing to report to Bubbles about. Drying her hair just a bit, she looked over at Bubbles' make-up stash. For a second, she wondered if she should put on blush or something, but ended up not. She figured that maybe it would make her look too obvious and desperate. Besides, he had already seen her today without makeup, and it was just the regular diner, so why look fancy?

Still, she couldn't help but sourly think that if she were Bubbles or Blossom, no one would have thought twice about it if she did.

She did, though, clip a section of her hair back, throw on some of her dark skinny jeans, and a regular t-shirt. Looking herself over, she didn't look like a total fashion embarrassment, so that was cool, and floated back downstairs.

"What? Was the game that bad?" She asked through a yawn, referencing his channel flipping.

He turned, his head following her walk to the couch, "Rain delay, oh well, like I said it was shit anyway."

She flopped down on the couch one cushion away from him (note it was a three-cushion couch) and hummed in agreement.

Her mind desperately searched for anything to talk about and was coming up with absolutely nothing. Ugh and to make matters worse, they didn't have any of the social buffers that they called siblings around to fill the silence. The whole situation was making her feel awkward, and that was seriously something she had never worried about before.

She was a superhero for crying out loud! She knew government secrets! Plus, she destroyed a monster today! Two actually! There had been a monster earlier this morning as well. The two of them had actual honest to god stuff in common, and still, nothing was coming out of her mouth?

"Tired?" He asked, turning his head to face her. She hadn't even realized she had been yawning.

She shrugged. Exhaustion came with the job

"Nothing I'm not used to. Hey, that one wasn't bad." She motioned her head to the movie he had flipped to, taking the subject off herself.

"We can watch it, I don't care."

"What about dinner, isn't everyone waiting or what? Aren't you hungry?" It was her turn to face him, as one of her eyebrows quirked up.

He shrugged and adjusted himself further into the couch, "It's almost done anyway, and you're tired. We can chill for a bit, then go."

He was acting weird, and she knew it, even if it had taken her a moment to catch on. He wasn't being loud, restless, annoying, talkative, or the least bit…well, spazzy. Hyperactive was the better word. He was acting like, well, Brick. Too cool. They were brothers though, she guessed they had to be a little alike some of the time.

Out of the corner of her eye, she examined him in full, as she adjusted herself onto her back to lay down as much as possible without touching him.

No, she thought. This wasn't Brick's carefree nonchalant, sarcastic attitude. When Butch wasn't looking down at his phone, he never looked at the tv for too long. His eyes kept jumping to different spots in the room, and every other second, he would shift. She had seen him act like this a few times before, especially when the two sets of triplets weren't on good terms and twice when they were. Each time Brick had told him to cut it out, and Boomer had eventually explained further that Butch was, though he'd never admit it himself, nervous.

Maybe it had to do with whoever he was texting?

"You can stretch out if you want. I don't care." He mentioned suddenly, looking up from his phone.

He must have caught on that she didn't understand exactly what he meant, because with his other hand he gestured to her cramped-up legs and continued, "I mean like you can stretch your legs out. Like you can put them on my lap or something." Then, he quickly looked back down at his phone, as another message flashed.

"O-oh, okay. You sure?" She hated how she stuttered a bit, but hopefully, he wouldn't think it was because of nerves.

He gave a noise in the affirmative range, and she adjusted her legs carefully over his. She hadn't ever done anything like this with a boy before, and well, honestly, she didn't know where would be the most…appropriate place to put a person's legs, so she aimed closer for the knee area (?) and fought the blush that ran across her face to die down. This leg on leg action was almost intimate, and her heart was accelerating at an alarming rate.

He adjusted too, making her careful attempts futile as her legs ended further up his lap then anticipated. Which was okay, whatever, cool. As long as he was comfortable, everyone was comfortable. And there was no reason to freak.

'Be cool BC.' Buttercup internally chanted.

Then…nothing else happened. Soon her heartbeat regulated, and the fun was over. Buttercup was only mildly disappointed though, like what else had she expected to happen, a kiss? She turned pink at the random ("random") thought before she fell back into the pointless action flick willing her eyes to stay open. She hadn't realized how worn out she had been.

Eventually, she zoned out, mentally going over everything she had done that day before she faintly picked up Butch muttering something.

"Sorry?" She asked, pushing her head up to look at him as if that would help her hear him better. He wasn't looking at her, just kind of around.

"Said, um, I uh like your jeans."

Her eyebrows had pulled together in confusion, "Uh, thanks?"

He brought the hand he had hanging over the back of the couch up and placed it on one of her shins, as he continued to talk, "Yeah, they're, uh good."

Her heart would have jumped at the contact if the sudden out of character compliment hadn't taken place. It did jump though when she finally realized Butch had stopped talking, and started concentrating on his phone again, but had failed to remove his hand from her leg.

"Yeah, they're just some old skinny jeans." She explained after a moment with a casual shrug, but internally, her insides were evidently shutting down.

She had been right!

He _was_ acting weird. Buttercup had half a mind to call him out and start some shit because he was probably about to start some shit. It was just too good to be true, this weird quiet, nice-ish act. What was he playing at?

Those words almost tumbled out of her mouth, but he beat her to it, "Is uh, can I put my hand there or?"

He still wasn't looking at her, and she still didn't trust this wasn't some sort of joke, but the words that squeaked (squeaked!) out of her tired body, for whatever reason, were not the words she had initially planned.

He had asked permission. Had Butch asked permission? _Permission_!

And while he had asked his thumb. _His thumb_! Had rubbed up and down on the spot that it was lying on for a brief second. And her heart felt like it had stopped for whatever dumb reason.

So, dumbly she squeaked, "Yeah, whatever."

"Cool."

And then, just like before, the excitement was over. And Buttercup concluded she was overreacting in every way. Crushes were hard. Obviously, she was the one being weird, even if Butch never asked permission to do anything before. He was just being…nice?

With a heavy sigh, he tossed his phone face down on the coffee table, and she selfishly wondered how long _that_ would last. His hand was still on her leg, as his eyes glazed over while he stared at the tv with his head resting on his other hand. This was the longest she had ever seen him go still when he was doing something he was clearly disinterested in. The little voice in her head told her that maybe she had something to do with it, but she squashed the thought and instead tried to focus on the movie to help her relax.

Today had just been too long. Why had she taken that call by herself? It had knocked her out!

Buttercup soon realized a weird amount of silence had elapsed between the two, but as soon as she opened her mouth to bitch about the movie scene they were watching, she immediately clamped it shut. Her body tensed, and with wide eyes, she looked directly over at him.

"Uh, sorry. I, uh—" Butch straightened and snatched his hand off her leg, where mere seconds ago, it had run up and down a section of her shin.

"No, its…you just, uh, it's cool. Like I don't care. Like it didn't bug me. Just a surprise." She awkwardly teetered off, stretching her arms a bit, "I think I was just starting to fall asleep."

"Oh," He looked over at her, and she couldn't help her sheepish smile, but it seemed like he looked away too quickly to notice, "It's cool."

"Yeah."

Slowly he relaxed again, throwing an arm over the couch and his other on the arm cushion. Buttercup felt her shoulders slump with disappointment when she realized that meant there would be no more hand-leg touching. Oh well, he wasn't paying too much attention to her, and no one else was around, so at least she could look at him like a freaking creep without getting caught.

Buttercup never thought she was the kind of girl to have a type, but if she did, she'd guess he would be it. She liked his crooked nose, pushed back, messy hair, and the little scar that ran down his eyebrow. She knew if he opened his mouth, she'd see the glint of his tongue piercing, which she spent too much time thinking about. There also was a tattoo peeking out from underneath his collar that he had illegally gotten (it wasn't his only one either). He was definitely pretty in a rough-looking sort of way, and she had recently come to the realization that she could stare at his face (and arms) for hours.

And yes, she knew precisely how Bubbles-like and creepy that sounded. She even had to bite back the dreamy sigh that was threatening to spill out of her mouth. God, she didn't even recognize herself anymore! But apparently, she was a sucker for bad guys.

But luckily, she had been staring because she would have jumped again if she hadn't watched his arm slowly move off the armrest and back onto her leg. She had watched that hand with hooded eyes and then quickly snapped her attention to the screen on the off chance that her looking would somehow scare it off.

Her heart was jumping around like crazy, but it went into maximum overdrive when that hand started to, once more, crawl backward and forwards on her shin. But her heart, forgetting its previous panic, came to a full stop when Butch's fingers softly traced over her knee and onto the beginning of her thigh. She resisted the urge to whip her head around and track those fingers with her eyes or look at him in general. She instead tried to remain cool, "calm," and semi-collected.

"Hey," He finally spoke, his voice deep and heavy, and shiver shot up her spine when he said her name, "Buttercup?"

He hardly ever called her by her full name, and she melted just a tiny a bit.

She swallowed thickly, "Hmm?" and chanced a quick look, as she fought off a yawn. This was seriously not the time for a nap!

He was staring at her, and his gaze quickly sucked her in.

He smirked, "Tired?"

Not trusting her voice, she shrugged, then nodded.

"Then, sleep." He suggested.

Shyly (Shyly! Her shy? Pigs must have been flying), she looked away, "Nah, can't."

Also, she had embarrassing sleep habits that she had no desire to share with him.

"You sure?" He asked, dragging his hand from her knee to her ankle, and she suppressed another shiver.

It was borderline insulting how calm and causal he looked doing it too, as if he did this all the time, while she sat there resembling an array of Christmas colors.

But then again, maybe he did do this all the time just not with her. And with that thought, she was able to emotionally pull it together as her eyes flickered quickly to his phone. She had seen Butch talk to plenty of girls before. The moment he and his brothers had gone semi-good, girls had started flocking to their door. Well, honestly, they had been flocking way before the boys had even considered going semi-good, but whatever.

"Yeah," She shrugged as her heart sunk, flicking her eyes back to his, "I'm pretty sure. Why? Do you want to get going?"

She made a move to get up, but he held her legs down instantly, "Nah, I'm good here. The movies not over yet."

She raised an eyebrow, "Really? I didn't think you were that into it."

"Yeah," He sighed as if he had weirdly deflated or something, "like you said…it's a good one."

Again, she shrugged, "I mean, if you're actually cool with it."

"I am."

They both turned again towards the TV, as she settled back down onto the couch. Vaguely she contemplated removing her legs entirely off of him but decided against it. Like yeah sure, so a million other girls had crushes on this guy, but she could at least enjoy a small victory, right?

He hesitated for a moment before she felt his hand relax on her shin. She could have sworn his eyes had flicked to her one last time before his hand again began to make its way back towards her knee. Maybe, she thought, he had even planned on going a little further, but then his phone rang.

Popping her little bubble of hope.

She felt his body jump, which corresponded nicely with her heartbeat like they had been caught doing something bad or something, which they weren't. She put her legs on her sisters' laps all the time. How was he different? Minus the, uh, rubbing part of course.

She politely kept her pretend attention on the tv, as he fumbled for his phone.

"Ye?" He finally answered gruffly and snapped, "What do you want."

She could hear Boomers muffled voice, and if she really focused, she would have been able to listen to both sides of the conversation. Most of the time, though, she was better than that.

"We'll be there soon. Just, uh, just watching a movie." His other hand flexed a bit around her leg, and she tried once more to fight the rising flush. It was nice though to see when she had glanced over that his neck was also finally turning a shade of red.

"She's tired. I dunno. Leaving? Then bring us something back. Like maybe twen—Hello Bubb-No, I do-" He sighed and turned to look at her with crossed eyes, "Bubbles wants to know where your phone is."

She rolled her eyes, "I must have left it upstairs, tell her I'm tired, and I want the cheese fries."

He nodded, "She left it upstairs. She said she's tired- Cheese fries. Wait! I wa—" He glared at the phone and scowled when the call ended, "I swear if they don't bring me anything back, I'm stealing your fries."

"That's fair." She snorted, as he sunk back into the couch with a huff crossing his arms.

The dumb girl part of her brain again mourned the hand-less state of her legs. She squashed that thought back down into its rightful place, where it would be allowed to resurface at a safer time, like three a.m. when no one else was awake to question her.

"Actually," he corrected as his sneer deepened, "if they don't bring me back food, I'm kicking my brother's asses, then stealing your fries. Those fuckers know I'm hungry."

"Oh, um, if you were that hungry, you didn't have to wait for me or anything, it would have been cool." She shrugged, feeling a little awkward. Didn't he just say he was fine?

Instantly, his sneer vanished.

"Nah, no, uh, it's no big deal." He told her legs.

"But—"

"Do you hear that? I think I hear them." He interrupted a little louder than necessary, which was the most normal thing he had done all night.

It took her a moment to locate their siblings. She never realized how great his hearing was and nervously tried not to think of the extra ten minutes she had spent floating outside the house.

"I think I'm starting to? Or those are…birds?"

He had started to text again, this time more rapidly.

"No," He said rather confidentially, "It's definitely them."

"Oookay, well um, thanks for ya know waiting with me then."

One corner of his mouth quirked up, and he shrugged, ripping his eyes away from his phone, "No big deal. Actually um, I was going to say we never really han—"

"Oh, wait." It was her turn to interrupt, "Now I hear them. For once, Brick's not arguing about something. Is he laughing?" She asked out loud.

Butch's phone dinged, and after a glance, he dryly replied, "Yeah. He probably is."

* * *

His brothers hadn't forgotten to get him food, so he regretfully had to let them live to see another day. Still, he had plenty of other reasons that he would make them suffer for.

Right now, he was stuck watching another fucking dumb, stupid movie that the girls were talking right through. He had tuned them out after Buttercup had finished talking about the monster she had taken down and the rest of her day that he had stupidly forgotten to ask about.

He stole another glance at her. They were sitting side by side, and every once in a while, her shoulder would brush against his. So even though he really wanted to get up and do something, _anything,_ else, he stayed rooted to his spot.

She had initially gotten up when their sibling had arrived, leaving his lap cold. Resentfully he had gotten up and followed her out to greet the two fucks he called brothers and demand his food. He ignored their stupid smug smiles, and quiet goading, and had actually ended up landing a good punch on Boomer's shoulder before they followed the girls back into the Utonium's living room.

Upon arrival, Blossom had taken up one of the armchairs, and Bubbles and Buttercup had taken the couch. Momentarily, he had been distracted looking at, well, _her_ for some dumb…stupid dumb…reason, that Brick had ended up stealing the seat next to Buttercup.

Butch had ever so slightly turned his head to stare as menacingly as he could at the fucking douche bag, only to be met with a smug smile. For fucking real, Butch hated his brothers.

"Whoops," Brick had said, "innocently," throwing his hands up into an overdramatic shrug, "was this _your_ spot, Butch?"

"Yes." He had answered through gritted teeth.

Brick put his hands down, "Oh jeez, Butch! How rude of me!"

But Butch hadn't been paying attention to Brick's shit apology, he had instead taken the time to glare at the hand that now rested heavily on Buttercup's thigh. His eyes, after a long moment, had flicked back to the grin on Brick's face.

"Want me to move?" His brother asked.

Buttercup had turned away from Bubbles to Brick and looked down at his hand, raising one of her perfect eyebrows, "Ya need something?"

"Huh?" He asked her, "Oh nah, sorry! I was just asking Butch if he wanted me to move. I think he wants me to." Brick winked.

Her eyes had flickered between them for a moment before she turned back to her sisters, "Uh, ok?"

Butch had watched Brick's hand slide up her thigh as he stood like it was the most normal thing in the world. Like it hadn't taken Butch twenty whole damn minutes to build up the courage, which he had never had an issue with before, just to put his hand on her fucking shin. And this prick had just gone and touched her thigh.

He had felt himself twitch as he darkly tracked his brother's walk across the room towards Blossom, which, fortunately for Brick, was a safe distance away from him. Both Brick and Boomer had snickered their dumb little heads off, while Butch had stood there mentally going over where the darkest corners of Townsville were to hide a body in.

He had continued to glare as he settled back down into his couch corner until Buttercup had glanced back at him and offered one of her small, rare little smiles. He had tried smiling back but had never been too good at the feat. It ended up not mattering anyway, by the time he had managed a real smile she had already turned back around.

So instead, he had decided just to ignore the knot his stomach had tied itself into and mechanically chewed away at his food.

At the present moment, she was resting her head on her bent knees, as she listened to whatever the hell Bubbles had been squeaking about for the last twenty minutes. He was now foodless. How BC managed to stay interested amazed him, especially given the fact that her eyes had been fighting to stay open the whole night.

Blossom walked back in with two bowls of popcorn, one for the sisters and one that was most likely supposed to be shared among the boys. Butch greedily snatched it away before Boomer's hand could reach it and commandeered the whole bowl for himself. That'd teach those stupid fucks!

"You look tired, BC. Do you want to go to bed?" Blossom asked Buttercup.

The question made Butch freeze, allowing Boomer to by-pass the foot that had been dug into his stomach, keeping him away from the popcorn, and snatch the bowl.

Butch could care less, though. He was more focused on what Blossom was talking about. Going to bed meant she'd leave! He had been planning on asking her something when they finally got a minute alone. Something that he had been trying to say all night.

"Nah, seriously, I'm good." She said through a yawn and then smiled, "Promise."

It was ten minutes into listening to Brick and Boomer recount some event (Butch wasn't listening, he was trying to tell them how they would die telepathically) when something heavy landed on his shoulder.

Butch tensed, his eyes widened, and his chewing came to a sudden halt. He swallowed the popcorn already in his mouth with a hard gulp and slowly looked out the corner of his eye at Butter's sleeping figure. Grossly, he came to the sudden realization that he could have stared at her forever…

…if there weren't two sets of eyes boring holes into his fucking skull. He shot a glare at his brothers who both had the same shit-eating grins plastered onto their faces. It took a whole lot of will power not to lunge at the two, especially after Brick decided it would be funny to wink at him.

Internally, he moaned, groaned, and bitched. This whole "thing" (he wasn't ever going to put labels on it) was really messing with his carefully constructed tough-guy persona. He needed to cut the crap and move on with his life, but it was like his body wouldn't listen to his brain.

In his defense, though, he had seriously, _seriously_ , tried not to let this happen, but she was just too hard to ignore.

He looked down at his phone, which was lighting up like crazy and knew exactly who the messages were from before he even bothered to read them.

The screen was blowing up with messages, as it had been all night thanks to his annoying, shitty brothers. Glancing at the screen, like every message he gotten from them since they had caught him talking in his sleep (which was arguably the worst night of his life), they all centered around Buttercup.

 _Dude! Don't fucking stare like a dumbass._ Brick texted, _Do something._

 _Put ur arm round her or sumthin!_ Came Boomer's suggestion.

He looked as discreetly as possible up at them for more confirmation. Boomer nodded at him eagerly, sneaking a glance at her sisters, who had been talking up a storm and not paying attention to them (thank god), and then gave him the thumbs up.

He tried swallowing again, but his dumb throat was super dry for whatever reason.

She mumbled something and fell further into him, making his eyes go wide. He threw another nervous glance over to his brothers. Brick rolled his eyes and motioned for him to get on with it.

Which honestly, Butch knew he was being a bitch, but there was no reason for Brick to remind him that he was being a bitch. It was so stupid. For real, why was he nervous? All he had to do was lift his arm up and just sort of put it around her.

Seriously, he had successfully robbed a Swiss Bank with his brothers at the tender age of 12! He had broken out of a handful of high-security prisons before he had gotten his full set of adult teeth! Hell, he had passed his tenth-grade math class with a high C! He could fucking put his arm around a girl, no fucking problem!

But this was Buttercup. Buttercup, who had really long legs that made him stare, flaunted around in short little uniforms that made it hard for him to talk and had absolutely no problem kicking his ass. She wasn't just any girl, she was the girl he had been made for.

Did she even _get_ that?

He took a breath, then held it, as he quickly threw an arm around her shoulders. Well, it was more like he had thrown his arm on the back of the couch, but if he flexed his fingers, he could just barely touch her shoulder. So, he'd say that had been pretty successful.

He was just about to look over at his brothers to brag because he knew they thought he'd chicken out of it—ha! He showed them!—when she stretched her arm over his torso, curled into him, and sighed. Her head rested on his chest, and for a split second, he wondered if the fucking noise his heart was making could wake her up.

And, shit, she smelt nice. Why'd she have' ta smell nice?

Now, Butch was tense, slightly panicking, and red. He could feel the back of his neck, burning up and reaching his ears. And if Butch was aware of it, then his brothers were extremely aware of it. There was no way in hell he was going to look over at them. Not now, not ever.

"Aw! Isn't that just adorable!" Bubbles cooed, "Buttercup must have really been tuckered out, poor thing! Maybe we should get a picture? You know she'd absolutely _love_ this."

"Oh, way ahead of you, Bubs." Brick smirked as he held up his phone.

"Smile, Butch!" Boomer snickered.

With his free hand, he flipped them off but kept his eyes firmly on the wall above the tv. He swore to himself that, yeah, they'd both be dead by morning.

"Oh, BC." Butch could hear the affection in Blossom's tone, "Sorry Butch, looks like you're her pillow tonight. Good luck trying to get her off you."

"Wha'?" He risked a look at BC's sisters, which was way more comfortable than looking at his brothers.

"Oh yeah," Bubbles giggled, "She's always been a snuggler! She was even worse when we were kids and had to share a bed. Poor Blossom got stuck in the middle of us three alllll the time, and Buttercup wouldn't let her go for nothin'!"

Blossom snorted, rolling her eyes, "And of course she's an active, heavy sleeper. I was always waking up with some kind of bruise. Just let us know if she bugs you, we have a few ways to get her up. We're experts by now."

Together, Bubbles and Blossom laughed.

"Oh, don't worry about Butch girls, I bet he'll be juuust fine." Boomer drawled out, and Butch couldn't decide if Boomer or Brick would be the first to die tonight, but he was still leaning towards Brick.

"Well! In that case," Bubbles chirped quickly, "Do the rest of us want to go chill in the hot-tub? Professor got it working again!"

There was a chorus of agreements, and the three of them jumped up. Blossom remained on her chair, watching with interest.

"Hey, wait, what about me?" Butch blinked, trying to wrap his head around everything.

"It's going to take you some time to pry that little snake off, so just meet us out there! I mean, you _can_ handle it, right?" Bubbles asked sweetly, but something very different twinkled in her eye.

"Well, I mean, yeah." He shrugged dumbly, not willing to admit he actually had no idea what he was doing to Buttercup's sisters.

"Yeah, Butchie," Brick smiled smugly as he patted Butch on the shoulder on his way to the kitchen where the sliding doors were, "Just meet us out there after your little snuggle sess."

Butch snarled and moved to swat at Brick's hand, but froze when Buttercup whined in her sleep.

Boomer laughed following Bubbles out, "Have fun, Butchie."

He swore if one more person fucking called him that—

His train of thought was cut off when he noticed Blossom was still there staring at him intensely.

"Don't worry." He bit back a scoff, when she got up and walked towards them, "I can get her off."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that, _Butchie_." She crouched down, so she was at eye level with him, just millimeters from his face, with the closest thing to a sneer he had ever seen tacked onto her face, "You think I'm a smart girl, right Butch?

"Uh, yeah?" He answered, trying to shrink away from her gaze and instantly forgetting his previous threat about the dumb nickname.

"Good. So, even though no one's telling me what's been going on here," Blossom motioned between him and BC, "you are aware I _know_ , right?" She asked, seriously.

He felt his body stiffen on its own accord like it had done during interrogations back in the day.

"Know what?" He asked through almost gritted teeth.

She let out an amused hmph and got even closer to his face. She was smiling, but the look in her eyes made his blood chill. Instinctively, he clutched Buttercup closer, a move that did not go unnoticed.

"Butch, I know how cliché this is going to sound, and trust me when I say I derive no pleasure from having to say it out loud, but I want you to listen very carefully." She paused before humming, "Are you listening?"

He nodded like a dumbass.

"Greeat." She condescendingly wrinkled her nose. "Then I won't have to repeat myself when I say, if you ever consider hurting my baby sister in any way, I'll make sure you suffer from something that _will_ be ten times worse. And I wouldn't question that if I were you," She somehow added nonchalantly, clasping her hands together, "I mean, we did just agree on how smart I was, right?"

"Rrrright." He said, still nodding.

She stood up, so she was now looking down at the two of them and reached out to smooth some of Buttercup's hair, "I'm sorry it has to be like this. Of course, you understand, right? I mean, Bubbles and I love her to death. You have sibling, you get it."

"Yes?"

"Perfect!" She clapped, "Well, maybe I'll see you out there! If anyone comes in to ask where I am, let them know I'm changing and grabbing some towels. You know those three didn't even bother to think about that." She shook her head, walking off, and Butch continued to sit in slight, uncomfortable terror.

He wasn't pulled out of his daze until Buttercup once again nuzzled her head into his chest, and his body responded like someone hadn't just threatened to send him to an early grave.

Like fuck, when did Blossom become fucking scary? He thought dads were the scary ones! Of course, Butter's dad was the Professor, and that guy couldn't scare Butch even if he tried. Hell, the guy probably wouldn't even be able to scare a mouse! He'd probably call in one of the girls. Probably Buttercup and if Butters was away…

…and now Butch knew why Blossom had to be the scary one.

But she was gone now, and it was finally just him and Buttercup, who, sure, wasn't really conscious for their time alone, but at least with her like that, he wouldn't make a dumbass out of himself like last time.

She snuggled in closer, and since no one was around, he allowed himself to grin. His heart thumped along happily as he wrapped both arms around her, leaned back down, and adjusted her into a more comfortable position. To the point where she ended up laying pretty much on top of him.

Sure, was he stuck watching another crappy movie? Yeah. Would he rather be in a hot tub with bikini cladded Powerpuffs? Hell yes. And was one of his legs falling asleep? Absolutely. But he couldn't think of any other time where he had been this close to Buttercup without there being any fighting, and apparently, she was just as warm as she was soft. Her hair tickled his nose, and if he stroked her sides, she'd sigh in her sleep. When he closed his eyes, he could almost pretend she was awake and letting him do this.

Which was pretty awesome.

* * *

She woke up to the feeling of someone rubbing circles into her back and thought vaguely that if they'd just reach her shoulders, that would be fantastic.

"Hey." A voice said.

"Hey." She mumbled, rubbing at her eyes.

"Have a nice nap?"

"Mhmm." She sighed and stretched, sitting up. She took a moment to roll and rub at her neck. Yeah, a neck message would probably be heavenly.

She blinked lazily and realized she had fallen asleep on the couch and wondered when the boys had left. Too bad, she had really tried to stay awake. Basically, being pushed into Butch's lap the whole night had really added fuel to the fantasy fire, and she hadn't wanted it to end.

Oh well. What was that phrase? All good things come to an end or something. Speaking of the end, when had the couch got so lumpy? Again, she stretched out her arms and rolled her hips with a groan. God, she needed to stretch more before fights…and did the couch just squawk?

Buttercup's eyes snapped fully open, and she looked down to met her counterpart's wide gaze. It took a terrifying few seconds to comprehend that she was, in fact, straddling the boys' torso

"You…y-ou aren't my body pillow…" She announced, falling back onto the other side of the couch and banging her head on the side table.

Without missing a beat, he also shot up into a sitting position, and quickly he agreed, "I am not your body pillow."

If her eyes got any wider, and if she turned any redder, she was sure her head would explode. Why'd she have to stretch like _that_ on top of him? Oh god!

"How long was I out? Where is everyone?" She asked, trying to edge the panic out of her voice.

"Chill," He said, trying to calm her down, not that it was working, "like an hour, and outside. It's late, though, so we're probably going to head out soon." He paused, and she watched a wicked smile travel across his face, "So, uh, you're not going to finish that lap dance, huh?"

And, acting on complete instinct and panic, she punched him.

"Oh shit!" She clambered over to his side, "I'm sorry!"

He swatted her hands away and held his nose, "It's cool," he replied nasally, "Bad joke. Is it bleeding?"

"Let me see." She removed his hands and sighed in relief, "No. No, you're good. Do you want ice? I can get ice."

"No, I'm fine. Shit," Butch moaned, moving his hand back to his nose, "You really got me, Butts."

"I know. I'm sorry. You just freaked me out." She explained.

"Blossom said I'd probably end up with a bruise, but I thought she meant while you were sleeping." He sighed, dropping his hands from his face, which was pretty close to her own. She moved back again to give him space, as she processed his last sentence.

"Oh, cool. So, my sisters did know. Great." She muttered mostly to herself. Stupid sisters! They knew what she was like! "I'm, um, gonna go and bash my head in." She clapped her legs and then stood up, "See ya later. Sorry…again."

"Wait!" He grabbed her arm, pulling her back, "You didn't do anything weird. Everyone knew you were tired, it's no big deal. I was tired too—"

"Bullshit, you've been bored this whole night. Don't lie." She finally called him out, too minorly pissed at her sisters and embarrassed to care.

"Well, yeah, bu—"

"It's cool you don't have to deny it. I mean, I did just punch your face." She pointed out.

"Yeah, but I usually deserve punches to my face!" He protested, and his grip became tighter as he yanked her back down.

"Hey!" She glared, not liking the idea that she was being treated like some rag doll, "Watch it!"

"Oh, shut up! Just stay here!" He hissed.

"Fine!" She hissed back, "Weird-o!"

Not her best insult, but her heart really wasn't into it at the moment. They sat in silence, each stewing in their own little world. She sighed and again rubbed at her neck.

"Is your neck okay?" He asked, noticing the movement.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help the small smile when she snorted, "I think your nose is more important than my neck right now."

It was his turn to laugh, "My face has been through way worse, you know that."

"Yeah, I do." She admitted, "Fine, my neck is sore. I must have slept on it weird. I'll take some pain pills later or something, see if that helps." She shrugged.

His eyes brightened. "Hey, wait, come' ere. Turn around."

Slowly, she complied.

His fingers on her neck made her eyes flutter shut, and instantly she swore she must have been dreaming again. Any past anger washed away from her in a snap.

"I learned this trick from Him, actually." And he probably was telling her more about it or something, but she wasn't listening. Instead, her brain had absolutely fucked off, but it turned out she was ultimately, one hundred percent, fine without it.

Was this how Bubbles lived? This was fantastic.

"Oh?" This time she didn't resist the dreamy sigh that escaped her lips, hoping that would keep him talking and keep his fingers moving.

Instead, his fingers stopped, and she actually felt herself pout until he said her name in the way that made her toes curl.

"Buttercup?"

"Yeah?" She heard herself whispered as she turned around to look up at him.

At this point, blood was pounding in her ears, and she felt like she was a character out of one of Blossom's old people romance books. His face was so close, and his eyes were her absolute favorite color of green, and they were staring right at her, and she swore he was getting closer…

…but then the back door open and whatever vibe the two of them had going shattered. He cleared his throat, looked towards the area their siblings were laughing and pushed away from her.

She watched him get up saying something about brothers, leaving, and murder, but it was like her mind had froze. Had she just imagined all of that? Was that a rejection? Did she interpret that whole moment wrong? Fuck, she was going crazy!

That was Butch, and she was Buttercup, and the things she had felt at that moment had to have been entirely one-sided. Right? Maybe?

'He pushed away kind of fast.' Her mind reasoned, but she didn't have time to think about it any further because the five others came walking back into the living room.

"Hey, Butter-cup-" Boomer popped the last syllable of her name.

"-Have a nice nap?" Brick finished, shrugging on his jacket and running his fingers through his wet hair.

She flushed, but nonetheless had enough sense to glare, "Yeah. Fantastic."

Brick winked, "Oh, good, Grumps over here wouldn't tell us a thing! But don't worry, I bet Butchi—augh!" Brick doubled over, holding onto his freshly elbowed stomach.

"Don't call me that." Butch shoved his hands back into his hoodie, stole a glance at Blossom for whatever reason, and turned his head away from the group. It was the second time tonight that she had seen some sort of color on his cheeks.

Boomer snickered and then dodged out of the way when Butch stomped past him towards the door. She looked over at her sisters, who both shrugged.

"We're leaving!" Butch announced loudly and threw open the door.

He was about to take off when Brick, still coughing, scolded, "Butch, it's rude to leave without saying goodbye."

Boomer looked like he was about to lose it, but tsked along with Brick.

Grumbling, Butch turned back around towards them but kept his eyes on the ground.

Quickly, he looked up towards her sisters and then his stare flickered to her, before it shot down again, "Bye."

And he zipped off.

* * *

A good hour later, the three girls were in their bedroom getting ready for bed, when she finally found her phone tucked underneath her pillow. There were 14 missed calls and 20 messages from Bubbles, two from Bloss, two goodnight texts from the Professor, who was away at a convention, which she quickly responded to, and one single:

 _hey_

That was from Butch, and her heart hit the ceiling. She had gotten it two minutes ago. She debated whether she should text back right away or wait another ten minutes, so she didn't look desperate. At the same time, though, maybe he had forgotten something? Like a…wallet? Maybe his cell phone!

'How would he be texting you then, idiot?' She reprimanded.

 _Hey_ , she texted back and quickly afterward also sent, _Did u forget something?_

 _no_

 _well yeah_ , came a second reply three seconds after the first.

She waited a moment for him to continue, but when he didn't, she responded, _ok?_

She put her phone back on her bed and continued to get ready to sleep. Her sisters were scurrying around as well, and she knew if she didn't make it to the bathroom now, there wouldn't be an opening for another hour. They both had the weirdest nighttime skincare routines.

When she came back fifteen minutes later, there were two unread messages.

 _Sorry late reply Mojo was throwing a fit. something about curfew like that's ever mattered or soemthing_

 _I forgot to ask you something_

 _No biggie. What?_ She asked, not allowing herself to get too excited.

Three little dots appeared, then disappeared, then reappeared all over again, and she watched them intensely.

"What are you doing?" Blossom asked, the green mask on her face had already started to crack, and it had made her look like some freaky alien. A second ago, she had been fighting in the bathroom with Bubbles, so her sudden presence (and appearance) made Buttercup jump and drop her phone.

"Damn, Bloss! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Who are you texting this late?" Blossom pressed on, and Buttercup saw no sense in lying.

"Butch. He forgot something."

"What?"

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"But why would he bother texting you so late about it?"

"I don't know. You snuck up on me before I could find out!"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic!" Blossom tsked as she walked over to her vanity.

"Maybe he forgot his phone!" Bubbles said and poked her head out the bathroom door, holding her toothbrush out of her mouth in thought.

"He's texting me from his phone, duh." She muttered, looking over the new messages and growing warmer by the second.

Thankfully, Bubbles shrugged and went back to brushing her teeth.

 _We should hang out w/out our siblings sometime. theyre fucking annoying._

 _Not so much your sisters tho but fuck my brothers_

 _Lol no my sisters can be super annoying. Bubbles wouldn't shut up earlier would she?_ Buttercup responded quickly.

 _No offense she never does_. _Better then Brick tho_

 _Haha no doubt_

After another minute or two, he texted back, _so yes? To hanging out?_

Her heart thumped, and she tried tucking her smile underneath her blankets, _oh yeah, sorry, I thought it was obvious I was good with it._

 _Nbd cool_

Blossom switched off the light, and a chorus of goodnights filled the room. Buttercup turned to face the wall, so the light of her phone wouldn't bug anyone. Her eyes were still pretty heavy, even after that nap. However, she had already fallen asleep (literally!) on him once tonight, so she wasn't going to try again.

 _Yeah just let me kno. Btw sorry Mojo chewed you out_

Butch sent just the eye-roll emoji, and a moment later replied, _its always something with him. Hes just pissed we dont fight for him anymore._

 _He doesn't do much anymore either tho?_

 _Trust me we know._

She smiled, yawned, and figured she might as well say goodnight. Butch's responses were coming in later and later, and she again thought about looking desperate.

 _I'm falling asleep on you again lol, so Ill talk to you later._

 _Its only 1. What is it about me that makes you so tired hm?_

 _Ok first off, 1am is late and I had to take care of three calls today. One by myself. Second, not my fault you make a pretty damn good pillow._ Then for good measure Buttercup sent, _lol_ , to alleviate some of the risks of the previous text, since it had felt pretty borderline flirty.

 _Hey if im that good I can always come back over. You make a pretty nice blanket ;)_

Her grin grew, and she was glad the room was dark. This was flirting, right? Was Butch flirting with her? She shook her head, nah, she was overthinking things. Butch flirting with _her_? Impossible. Right? Right.

She sighed and deflated as she sent her next message.

 _Haha thanks but a regular pillow will just have to do. Night :)_

 _If youre sure. Night_

There was really no need to get her hopes up, but she did stare at the little winky face in the previous message for way, way longer than necessary, as her heart flopped around in her chest. And since it was late and no one was going to be asking her any question, she silently indulged in the idea that maybe Butch had a little crush on her too.

Bitterly though, she remembered the little thought that had nagged away at her the whole night, and she let the entirety of it surface to her mind. Seriously, who in the world had he been texting the entire night? It had to of been a girl. Girls from school were always giving him their numbers.

Buttercup's frown deepened, and she abandoned her body pillow to turn onto her other side. She was now facing Blossom, who was snoring away peacefully. And then it hit her full force.

 _Oh._

Of course, now she knew!

Butch had been acting weird around Blossom when they all had said goodbye. He was definitely eyeing her and, if Buttercup was remembering correctly, the texting had really stopped whenever she was around. That'd also explain why she was so keen on why Butch was texting her.

She sighed.

Yeah. It made sense to Buttercup. She couldn't even be mad at him or anything. Blossom was absolutely perfect. Buttercup would never, ever, in a million years, ever be on her level. It was her fault for deciding not to tell Bloss that she may have been slightly into her counterpart, so if Blossom liked Butch and Butch liked Blossom, she really couldn't stop them. That would be plain wrong, and who was she to call dibs.

Tears pricked at her eyes, and she blinked them away.

 _No_. Buttercup would not do _that_.

This was her sister! And she liked Butch enough to want them to be happy. She wouldn't let her prissy little attitude get in their way. She only had a tiny crush, if you could even call it that! In fact, them getting together would really help her get over whatever this actually was.

"Yeah," Buttercup thought out loud, "them getting together!"

Her fist hit her palm in determination. She'd make sure nothing would stop them.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay, listen, I'm sorry I know everyone hates long author notes, but I think I need to give a better update on where the story is:

One: I swear I haven't given up on this yet.

Two: it's not a two-shot anymore! I thought, hey maybe I could make it a three-shot, but I can't do that either. I had too many fun ideas! Also, everything _is_ outlined. It's just there's a lot to write and I'm a full-time student, so I don't have a ton of time to write for fun. Part two, which starts this chapter, will probably be split into 3 chapters.

Three: I really wasn't expecting such awesome and positive feedback especially when I recently reread part 1. There are so many mistakes guys it's disgusting. I went back and edited some of the more obvious errors.

I'm sorry this took me so long to churn out, but I hope the amount of content will soon make up for it! Seriously thank you all so much for the support! I like what I wrote for this chapter, but I'm horrified to know what you guys think lol. I definitely don't think it's as cutesy as last time.

edited: 4/25/20

* * *

 **Part 2.1**

Buttercup, in the most unattractive fashion, woke up with a sudden snort. She wiped the drool off her face, stretched, and ran her fingers through her hair in a weak attempt to tame it.

"Morning, sleepyhead!" Bubbles sang from the vanity, as she took her time removing the curlers from her own hair.

Buttercup grunted in response.

"The Professors did make it home; he's downstairs making brunch!"

She kicked off her covers, rolled off her bed and onto the floor with another grunt.

"Yep! Blossom's down there too." Bubbles hummed, turning her attention back to the mirror.

Buttercup groaned and lifted herself off the floor and did whatever the flying equivalent of shuffling was, towards the kitchen.

Behind her, Bubbles called out, "No prob-lam-o!"

The Professor was whistling by the oven and smiled brightly at her when she floated in. Slumping down into her seat, she tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes and groaned.

"Hi sweetheart! The conference was great. Here, I made French toast!" He offered her a steaming plate, and she began scooping the piping hot, cinnamony goodness into her mouth.

She mumbled sleepy nonsense back at him through a mouth full.

"What was that, dear?" He asked from the stove.

Buttercup swallowed and again mumbled sleepy nonsense, but this time a little louder.

"Oh! Yes, the presentation went splendidly. I wish you girls had been there! How was your night?"

She shrugged, chugging her orange juice, as she scratched at her head.

From the other end of the table, a newspaper was folded shut, "Prof—oh sorry, Buttercup, I didn't mean to interrupt."

Buttercup waved away Blossom's apology and focused once more on stuffing her face.

"If you're sure!" Blossom smiled, flipping her hair over her shoulder,

"Say, Professor, would you mind lending me a hand today?"

"What for dear?"

Buttercup, who could now keep her eyes fully open for longer than five seconds, smacked her lips and looked over at Blossom, ignoring most of what the other two were saying. Bloss looked as immaculate as always—all done up with a bow on top. Buttercup, who wore a pair of frumpy stained sweatpants and an equally stained shirt, truly resembled the human bag of garbage she had grown up to be sitting next to Blossom, but she had come to peace with that years ago.

Her chewing slowed, as something pulled at her heart, and the memories from last night punched her in rapid succession. Seriously, she could have banged her head against the table. How could she have been so stupid before? How could Butch not like Blossom? How could _anyone_ not like Blossom! She was so mature and calm…and pretty. For the first time in years, something like envy tugged at her heart when she looked back over at Bloss.

She snapped her eyes closed, let a low massive breath filter out her nose, and tried to collect herself. She was not going to be that brat who bitched and moaned about not getting the guy. That was definitely _not_ her M.O. For real, who did she think she was? _Princess_?

Barf.

No! Instead, she would be a shining beacon of love, support, and kindness! She'd make sure those two were so freaking happy that even their future grandkids would come crying to her, thanking old great auntie Buttercup for all she had done. She swore—

"Buttercup!" The Professor yelped, interrupting her train of thought, "Your glass!"

"Huh?" She looked down at her hand, that was now dripping with orange juice and shattered shards of glass that had once made up her cup, "Oh, shi—I mean sorry!" She quickly apologized, releasing the last bits of glass from her tight grip and whipping at the juice that had splashed onto her shirt.

"Dear be more careful!" The Professor chided.

"You really have to watch your strength BC." Blossom tsked, leaning over to dab some napkins on the table. Buttercup quickly shooed her away.

"It's fine. It's fine. I got it!" She again batted away her sister's hands, "It was probably already cracked…anyway, what were you saying? You need help with the…uh, thingy?"

Blossom stared at her for a second, then continued, "It's for the Mayor's annual Briners Convention. Ms. Bellum asked if we could lend a hand, remember?" Then, bitterly, she added, "And so far, I'm the only one who's gotten roped into it."

The stupid annual Briners Convention was one of the Mayor's "brilliant" schemes to make Townsville a pickle empire. Other's among the list included the Pickle Parade, the Pickle Festival, Pick-Le-Palozza, Peter Pieper Pickle in Memoria Day (Peter Pieper wasn't a real person, Mayor just liked the alliteration), and finally, the BYOB( _rine_ ) Town Hall event.

Buttercup would have groaned at the mere mention of the convention if it weren't for the brilliant idea that had just basically slapped her full on the face. Setting up for those things usually required a two-man team, and she knew just the pair of crazy kids who needed the alone time!

"Why are you smiling like that?" Blossom asked.

"Huh? No reason," She responded quickly, "Say how about I help out? So, the Professor doesn't have to worry."

"Are you sure? I don't mind." The Professor asked.

"Oh yeah, no problem! None at all!"

Blossom squinted at her, "But you said you couldn't last week."

"Well, now, I can." Buttercup replied simply, with a shrug.

"I thought you thought the event was completely stupid and downright pointless." Blossom continued.

"Well, now, I don't." She again replied, trying to bite back the hiss in her voice.

"But—"

"Do you want the help or not?" She finally snapped, crossing her arms.

"Okay, okay, fine." Blossom relented, "Yes, I would like the help, thank you."

"Like I said, no problem. In fact, I could even round up some more help to make things go by faster." She suggested.

"Really, who? I've already asked everyone." Blossom sighed, "Bubbles said she'd help if she weren't already volunteering with the Critter Sanctuary this afternoon."

"Oh, I don't know…say, maybe I'll go ask a certain dark-haired, green-eyed compadre. I bet you'd like that?" She leaned in closer to Blossom with a wink.

Blossom once again stared at her, probably playing confused, and asked, "Sure? You're referring to Butch, right?"

"Yeah," Buttercup winked again and thought it was sweet Blossom was being so coy about it, "Butch."

"Right. Well, I'm pretty sure he told me that he'd rather…do something explicit with Fuzzy Lumpkins when I asked earlier this week, but if you can get him to do it, then, by all means, please ask." She stood up and stretched, "All three of them said no. Well, Boomer threw a paper ball at me, yelled 'distraction,' then ran. Brick just texted me 'lol no, I'll probs take a nap instead. Kay kay bye'."

Blossom frowned and sighed, "Anyway, I've got to go work on my English project! I was thinking about leaving around two. Is that okay?"

"Sure thing!" Buttercup beamed, again earning herself another one of Blossom's famously critical stares of assessment.

"Rrright."

Buttercup ignored her, though, as her mind wandered down a path she was pretty sure Bubbles strolled frequently.

This matchmaking stuff was real delicate work, especially with someone as smart as Blossom. She had to be sneaky about it; no one needed to get spooked. She wanted to let things happen as organically as possible. All they probably just needed was a little nudge, and, in a few months, they'd be like the prom king and queen…well, if Butch was somehow roped into actually going to a lame school dance, but those were the little details. What mattered was in just a few measly hours Buttercup would personally be responsible for the town's next power couple.

She could see it now! Blossom could fall off a "wobbly" ladder and he could catch her in his arms…well, they had superpowers, so they didn't really need ladders. Okay! Alright, they could accidentally get locked in a storage room and…well, they could probably use their super strength to get out of that.

She shook her head and pushed those thoughts away.

The little details didn't matter! She'd figure that stuff out later! All she needed to do right now was get Butch to show up…

 _ **Beep. Beep. Beep.**_

"Girls! The Hotline!"

…right after saving the day.

* * *

"I have to admit Buttercup," Blossom yelled over the wind, "I'm surprised you got him to come. I figured it would take a little bit more than a text!"

Buttercup adjusted her grip on the heavy metal sign that she was holding steady for Blossom to bolt down, "Yeah, well, you just gotta know what to say!"

In all honesty, she was a little surprised too. She had even had like three different bribes all nice and lined up, but hadn't needed any of them. His response had come back pretty positive—meaning he had only bitched a little about helping out.

She wondered why he had even bothered saying no to Blossom in the first place? Her best guesses were he had tried playing hard to get, and it had backfired, or the idea of Buttercup being there with them helped his nerves. She was leaning more towards the former.

Anyway, whatever, she wasn't going to question it. Apparently, 'hey come help me and bloss set up this stupid pickle shit' was just enough.

"Is he coming soon? We have to put up ten more of these." Blossom called down.

"Seriously? This isn't enough?" She asked, gesturing to the twelve oversized signs that they had already attached to the building. It looked like Vegas, over the top and bright; just instead, there were also a shit ton of pickles. Dancing pickles, flashing pickles, rainbow pickles.

God, the double entendre was literally blinding.

Blossom sighed, "Ms. Bellum said the Mayor wants to make sure no one misses this."

Buttercup turned her attention down to look at the little man dressed in a pickle suit as he ran back and forth down the street, handing out flyers.

"How could they?" She huffed, rolling her eyes at the Mayor's antics. Blossom laughed and floated down to where she was.

"Honestly," Blossom mused out loud and floated a bit from the building, thinking, "we may not need Butch after all. We've got a pretty good system down. We could send him inside?"

Buttercup panicked slightly and instantly attempted to deflect the idea, "Nah! It's fine. I'll go inside, handle the wack-jobs. We can let Butch handle the heavy lifting." She checked her phone, "Anyway, he should be here real soon."

Bloss nodded her head, "Okay, yeah, you deserve a break anyway. The signs are kind of heavy."

Buttercup frowned and crossed her arms, suddenly, a little miffed, "Ha. Ha. Okay, well, they're not. I don't need the break. I'm offering to handle inside because I'm just so nice and sweet."

Blossom snorted, "Nice and sweet? Sure."

Buttercup playfully jabbed at her sister, "Well, what do you prefer, huh? Butch? If he had to deal with those idiots directly, five minutes in, and we'd have to take care of a homicide or two."

"Very true." Blossom agreed as they floated down to the ground for the next sign.

"Hey!"' A voice called out when they had landed, and they turned to find Butch walking towards them.

His hair was wind-blown and messy, and her stomach jittered to life. Pushing away her sudden nerves, Buttercup shoved her hands into her jacket pockets, so she wouldn't fiddle with them.

His eyes trained on the two of them for a moment, but as he got closer, he looked upward and let out a low whistle, "What the fuck?"

"Like, I'd make a dick joke, but that's low hanging fruit…even for me." He scoffed, dropping his eyes back down to them.

Buttercup couldn't help the stupid girly giggle that escaped her mouth and instantly wanted to die. What he said wasn't even, like, funny, but at least the other two were kind enough to not notice…hopefully…she was avoiding eye contact, so how could she really know.

"Well, thanks for containing yourself." Blossom quipped unamused, but lightened up the next second, "And thanks for coming. The help's appreciated."

Buttercup, who had totally forgotten to say thank you, warmed at the social mishap and trailed after her sister quickly, "Yeah, thanks."

Butch looked at her for a solid second then shrugged, "It's whatever. Wasn't doing anything anyway."

"Earlier this week, you said—"

Butch cut off Blossom with a quick glare, "Do you want the help or not?"

The two stared at each other for a beat before Blossom dropped the act and huffed another quick, "Yes. Thank you."

'Was that a moment?' Buttercup thought to herself utterly oblivious to the tense atmosphere, 'God, this is going to be too easy!'

Butch cleared his throat and again looked at the signs that hung heavily on the building (a serious accident waiting to happen, but they'd deal with that later), "Soooo, what's the plan anyway?"

Buttercup quickly spoke up, before Blossom could even think to interject, "You'll be hanging those," She pointed to the other signs still on the flatbed truck and with amusement watched his eyes grow, "with Bloss. I'll be inside dealing with them." She finished with a sigh, pointing to the other men running around, who all shared both the enthusiasm of, and a great deal of resemblance to the Mayor.

Butch frowned, which made her pause. Not that him frowning was new or anything. When he didn't have that shit-eating grin plastered across his face, he was scowling about something. Probably because they were forcing him to do manual labor, but, Buttercup realized with annoyance, if he kept the frowning shit up around Blossom, she'd get the wrong idea!

"What?" She asked, trying to keep her voice light and her teasing friendly, "Afraid of heights or something?"

"No," He snorted defensively, crossing his arms, "but why can't—isn't Blossom going inside? You're no cup of tea to work with. They don't stand a chance."

She glared at him, but before she could argue, Blossom interjected, "Yeah, you know, I can totally deal with them, if you want to be with Butch!"

Something about Blossom's voice had completely reminded Buttercup of Bubbles for a split second, but she couldn't place why. That wasn't what mattered at the moment, though. What mattered was the fact that Buttercup didn't have a good enough excuse as to why she needed to be the one inside.

'On your toes, BC!' She thought as she examined her scowl in a puddle. It certainly wasn't pleasant looking. And she was certainly proud of it. It told the bad guys to think twice before messing with her.

…

The puddle reflected back up at her the quick, devious smile that flashed across her face.

 _Bingo._

"I'm cool with th—"

"What?" She cut off Butch quickly with a growl, as her stare grew cold and hard. "You two don't think I can handle it or something?"

She wanted to laugh at how quickly they scrambled to backtrack. It was a brilliant move, and she was glad she had thought of it. No one liked arguing with her when she went "big bitch mode".

 _Yeah_ , that's _right_. She was very much aware of what people said behind her back, and it was her favorite ace in the deck.

"Because it kind of sounds like you two don't think I can handle it?"

"That's not what we mean—" She put her hand up to stop Blossom from talking and placed her hands on her hips.

"Jeez, Blossom, I'm sooo so sorry I don't cater to people the way you want me to, but I'm pretty damn sure I can handle this!" Condescension leaked off her tongue as she stomped towards the building entrance.

With one final huff, she muttered, "Pfft, not a cup of tea my ass," and left those two saps in her dust, feeling insanely proud.

And how could she not? She was fucking brilliant. She saved the awesome plan AND was responsible for the town's next power couple!

This whole matchmaking thing? Serious piece of cake.

* * *

She fucking hated herself.

No. That wasn't right. She didn't hate herself.

She hated _them_.

All these tiny men in their tiny ill-fitted pickle suits with tiny little pickle minds telling her what to do!

Oh yeah! And she HATED pickles.

Actually, anything a person could brine. She hated anything brined-able. And apparently, a person could brine a lot of things if they had the imagination for it.

Currently, she was squatting down behind the rack of folding tables no one had bothered to take down yet, hiding from those little men and their disgusting brine.

She could hear them looking for her, calling out to her, asking her to help them with their jars. God, there were so many jars.

She'd only been at this for twenty damn long minutes, and she was being driven mad.

 _Oh Buttercup! Set this table here!_

 _Oh Buttercup! Put these lights here! And here! And ohhhhh, here!_

 _Ooooh Buttercup! Unload these barrels!_

 _My hand! I'm stuck! Oh, someone please, please help me!_

 _Don't spill that Buttercup! It's an old family recipe that dates back to…._

 _Be a dear and sprinkle this baby powder on me! The suit's chafing my- pickle! Be careful with that pickle!_

 _We need more signs!_

 _More Pickles!_

 _More baby powder!_

 _Buttercup!_

 _Buttercup!_

 _OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh ButterCUP!_

"Butters?"

She jumped and whipped around to find Butch looming over her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not hiding!" She demanded, the red in her cheeks betraying her, "I'm just looking for something I dropped!"

His eyebrow perked up and nodded slowly, "Never said you were hiding."

"Well, don't assume it either!" She argued with a huff and stood up, "What are you doing in here."

He pointed over towards Blossom, "We're done. So, she came in here to help and I'm in here pretending to help. Kinda like you." He accused.

"I'm not pretending to help. I just…I just, ugh, shut up!"

How could she explain the amount of baby powder she had had to deal with for the past twenty minutes without sounding deranged?

Instead, she pouted in defeat while he laughed, and as she listened to him, for whatever reason, her mind seemed to short circuit. Before she knew it, she was laughing too as she punched a playful jab in his direction. He, of course, easily dodged.

"Stop laughing, ass. You'd be hiding too."

"Oh, don't worry, I already am."

"How'd you two get done so fast anyway?" She asked, trying to reign in her smiling. She didn't want to look like some crazy clown or lunatic or something.

Oh god. Did she look like a crazy clown or lunatic or something when she smiled? She had never noticed before. Did he think she did? Did everyone think she did? She'd need to find a mirror and decide.

He shrugged (also still smiling, but he somehow managed to pull off this great young James Dean look), "I could hold two at one time if I used an energy shield. It's not like those signs were heavy."

"Yeah," She crossed her arms again, feeling a little miffed, "I'm aware I was doing it before you got there, show off."

"What'd you just call me?" He asked, leaning in closer as his eyes danced with amusement.

"Show off." She repeated, sticking out her tongue and holding her ground as he took a small step forward, leaving little room between them.

There was a buzz of excitement that coursed through her body when she realized just how close they were. She was tall for her age. Usually, she dwarfed the other boys at school, not something that embarrassed her, but she hadn't realized how…nice(?) it felt getting to look up at somebody. Like she liked that he was taller and she had no idea why.

Because she certainly hadn't liked it back when they were thirteen and he had gained two inches over her seemingly overnight. She also had not liked it when Boomer, in the middle of one of their fights (they had robbed a bank or whatever, no big deal), had pointed it out for everyone else to notice too.

Butch used to be the shortest one, by the way, but now she figured she was okay that he was now not.

But this nice warm, tall, closeness regretfully did not last long.

"Ooooh Buttercup! There you are!" A pickle with a monocle exclaimed as he waddled over, "I've been looking EVERRRYYwhere for you!"

The little man waddled over to where she stood and ended up bumping into her legs. She looked down at him as he slightly bounced back, pushing the suit up and away from obstructing his eyesight. No wonder he hadn't found her sooner, the costume was just slightly too big for the old man.

His friends (family members?) seemed to have no trouble finding her, unfortunately.

"Hey, Mayor." She smiled. He was a little annoying, but she was fond of him anyway.

"Buttercup dear, I was wondering—" The Mayor froze, and the baby powder he was holding let out a frightened puff of powder when he finally realized Butch was standing there with her.

The Mayor let out a sound that reminded her of a baby duck crossed with a frightened puppy as he jumped behind her.

"Buttercup," He whispered, pulling on her sleeve, "Don't be alarmed, but t-there's a-a-a Rowdyruff Boy r-r-r-ight next to you!"

Butch regarded the man with mild disinterest and rolled his eyes.

She patted the top of the Mayor's costume in what she hoped was a comforting way, "It's okay Mayor, he's with me. I've got him under control."

"You do?" He asked with a quiver.

"Mhmm." She reassured him and looked up at Butch with a smile, which wasn't supposed to mean anything. Not at all. But to her horror (and even worse; pleasure), he winked at her when they made eye contact, and it was suddenly very hot in that room.

"Oh yeah Mayor," Butch shook his head in agreement and leaned over down closer to the smaller man, "she keeps my leash nice and tight." And as the room began to freaking boil—god, it was hot—just for fun Butch, acting like a dog, bared his teeth and bit at the air near the Mayor's head.

Which made the Mayor let out another high pitched 'eep', and he scurried away.

"Hey!" Buttercup chastised, this time actually landing a punch on Butch's shoulder, "Knock that shit off. You scared him!"

Butch practically danced away, laughing and rubbed at his shoulder, "Like it's hard! He pisses his pants any time we come around."

"Can you really blame him, with all you guys have done?"

Butch paused and looked up towards the ceiling, then back at her. He walked back over easily closing the distance again, and smirked, wagging a finger at her, "Are you trying to make me admit guilt to something. Because you can't prove shit, and I want a lawyer."

She rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to rebuttal when Blossom walked over, holding three water bottles, trailed by Ms. Bellum, who was coddling the Mayor.

Blossom handed one bottle to her and the other to Butch before asking, "Which one of you made the Mayor cry?" But she was already looking at Butch, who shrugged.

"It wasn't me." He denied innocently, before dramatically gasping, "Buttercup, tsk, you should know better. What kind of superhero are you?"

Buttercup crossed her arms and glared at him (while also trying to put some distance between them now that she was hyperaware of Blossom), "The kind that can knock your unconscious ass through six different buildings."

"Yeah?" A wicked smile stretched across his face, she knew that smile very well, he wore it when he was 'looking for fun', "Try it. I dare you."

A throat cleared and the three teens looked over at a probably cross looking Ms. Bellum, if the lady would ever push her hair out of her face for them to see, "I urge you not to fight in this building. Thank you."

Together, Blossom and Buttercup quickly muttered, "Yes, Ms. Bellum. Sorry Ms. Bellum," as if they were _actually_ planning on fighting in this building.

After examining the tiles of the floor for a moment, (because she wanted to, not because she was like worried or something that Ms. Bellum was disappointed in her), she smiled at the Mayor, "I'll just beat him up somewhere else later for you Mayor."

The Mayor peaked out from behind the legs of Ms. Bellum, sniffed, and nodded, "O-okay."

"Oh, come on," Butch muttered under his breath, and Buttercup elbowed him.

"Now, Mayor. That won't be necessary. Once Butch apologizes, it will all be said and done. Right?" Ms. Bellum looked over at them.

"Oh, come on!" Butch said even louder, and this time both girls quickly elbowed him into submission.

"Fine," He huffed, " 'orry Mayor.' He mumbled.

The Mayor, tears quickly drying, in turn, piqued up, "It's okay!"

"Good. Now, let's go powder your suit, Mayor." Ms. Bellum took the little pickle man's hand and nodded towards the group in goodbye, "Girls. Butch."

"Bellum," Butch answered back just as coldly, but when she was far enough away, released a small noise of approval.

"Damn." He muttered, watching Bellum walk away.

Buttercup watched too for a second, as Ms. Bellum's hips swung back and forth. Though ultimately, her eyes fell back on Butch, watching him out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't help but look down at her own body for a moment before crossing her arms. Not that she was self-conscious or anything, just 'cause she felt like it.

"Butch," Blossom commanded, putting down her bottle. She had been so quiet Buttercup had almost forgotten she was there.

"What?" He asked, eyes still elsewhere.

"I suggest you stop leering, especially while you're with your present company." She sneered, and then she pointedly looked at Buttercup in a way that Buttercup could only assume was a call for back-up.

Which didn't make any sense to Buttercup? Not that she didn't like knocking a man off his high horse or anything (go feminism), but Ms. Bellum did just say they couldn't get in any fights while they were in the building, and words were undoubtedly not Buttercup's forte. Personally, Buttercup preferred knocking a creep's teeth out.

This certainly looked more like a job for Blossom's expertise. Blossom's way of making grown men cry was a verbal art form. It was pretty kick-ass. Her "Women Aren't Objects" speech? Sup-fucking-erb.

So, why would she need back-up? Whatever. The girl was weird.

…

Wait.

No, whoops, the thought was gone.

NO! Wait!

Holy crap! She knew standing next to Ms. Bellum made her feel like a popsicle stick, but she had never thought Bloss felt that way!

How could she be so dumb!

Blossom, Blossom freaking Utonium, her beautiful, completely perfect older sister by .2 seconds was jealous of Ms. Bellum because her, admittedly, rocking body had distracted Butch from her own!

Holy! Crap! Buttercup could not be more right about this! She needed to activate protective sister mode stat!

"Yeah, pervert!" Buttercup hit the back of his head with a hard thump, cutting off whatever he was about to blabber on about, "Knock it off!"

She smiled triumphantly at Blossom and nodded, "I wouldn't take it to heart Bloss. Boys are just dumb; they can't help it." She patted her shoulder, sympathetically, "Now, let's finish this stupid set up."

* * *

Bubbles flopped down on her bed and propped her head on her hands to stare at Buttercup.

"How was setting up for the convention?" She asked innocently.

Buttercup and her reflection shrugged, "It was fine. Lots of baby powder." She smiled again at the mirror, baring her teeth, "Hey, do I have a weird smile?"

"No, you have a great smile! Why?"

"No reason."

Buttercup didn't know whether to believe her or not. Bubbles wasn't one to lie, but she also wasn't someone who'd ever find a flaw in anything or anyone. With a sigh, she turned from the closet mirror and marched over to her own bed to lie down.

Bubbles huffed from her side of the room, "Oh come on, Buttercup! Nothing happened at the set-up?"

"Well, someone ended up knocking over this pickle barrel, and it felt like we were in some Nintendo game for a half a second…hey, how big do you think the Mayor's family is?" She asked, reflecting.

Bubbles sighed, "I'unno big, but Buttercup, come on! I don't care about the set-up," Suddenly, Bubbles cannonballed onto Buttercup's bed at top speeds, making the two girls bounce around, "I wanna know about Butch!"

"Hey!" Buttercup yelped and tried to stabilize her shuttering bed until the rest of her sister's sentence registered in her head.

Previous annoyance dissipating, she looked away from Bubbles and shrugged, "O-oh, uh, he was like fine and stuff."

Bubbles rolled her eyes and smiled, "Oh? Was he like fine, everything's normal, or was he like _fiiiine_?" She emphasized with a shimmy of her shoulders.

With pink cheeks, Buttercup smacked her sister with a pillow and protested, "I don't know! How am I supposed to know? What does that even mean!"

Bubs laughed and leaned into Buttercup, poking her nose, "You know _exactly_ what that means!"

Ugh, this was stupid!

"Yeah, whatever, he was fine, and he looked nice. Whatever! When—"

"—Does he not?" Bubbles interrupted her huffy sister, letting out an overexaggerated, dreamy sigh while she semi collapsed onto Buttercup.

Completely red now, Buttercup once again smushed a pillow onto Bubbles' face to get her to shut up.

"That's not what I was going to say! I didn't even have a lot of time to look at him! I was busy!" She blatantly lied.

"Oh!" Bubbles sang, "but you so wanted toooooo!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

Buttercup screwed her eyes shut, so she wouldn't have to keep looking at her sister's wolfish smile. How could Bubbles look wolfish? A few weeks ago, Buttercup would have thought that was impossible!

"Urgh!"

"Admit it!"

Her eyes still screwed shut, she paused, and reluctantly, because it would feel good to get it off her chest, and that was the only reason why, softly said, "…maybe."

The windows shook, as Bubbles squealed, bouncing up and down, jumping from one bed to the next, "I knew it!"

"Shut up!" Buttercup hissed, her eyes now wide up, "You'll let the whole world know!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Bubbles nodded excitedly and stopped her bouncing, settling back down on Buttercup's bed, "Tell me everything. What was he wearing? Did he call you any of those cute nicknames? Was he wearing cologne? What kind? Come on, Buttercup, paint me a word picture, I gotta know!"

"Uuuhh…" Buttercup muttered.

She almost felt bad that she wasn't any better at all this stuff for Bubbles sakes, but it wasn't like she could tell Bubbles that Blossom and Butch were the ones actually into each other. At this point, Buttercup was seventy-five percent sure it would break her happy little heart.

That meant her matching making would definitely have to be kept a secret for now; to spare everyone the hurt feelings.

"Well," Buttercup started again, "I don't really think the nicknames are supposed to be cute."

Bubbles frowned and opened her mouth to argue when Blossom walked into the bedroom.

'Thank god!' Buttercup mentally relaxed, 'Saved by the bell herself!'

"What was with all that screeching I hear—why's my bed a mess?" Blossom started, her OCD kicking in.

Bubbles and Buttercup shrugged, as they watched Blossom methodically fold the blankets straight again.

"Jeez Blossy," Bubs said innocently, "I have no idea!"

Blossom glared at them, obviously not buying the lie, and with a huff asked, "Well, what are you two talking about then?"

The two of them froze for a second before sharing a brief worried look.

Bubbles again spoke first, "Oh, I was just asking about the pickle set-up! How was it for you?"

Blossom, more focused on smoothing out a particularly stubborn wrinkle, hummed in thought, "I think it went pretty well, except for the barrel incident. Did you tell her about that?" Blossom asked Buttercup and continued talking when she nodded yes, "Besides that, we split up into teams and got the work done pretty fast. I stuck with Ms. Bellum pretty much the whole time."

Blossom paused and carefully sat down on her bed to look at her sisters. Then, with a small smile, she leaned in like she had gossip, "Butch and Buttercup made a pretty good team, you know what I mean?"

Buttercup's eyebrows furrowed together, confused, "Uh, thanks?"

Bubbles awkwardly shifted on the bed.

Blossom frowned and looked pointedly at Bubbles, "They were together the _whole_ time. Practically glued to the hips."

Then, she unmistakably blinked once, twice, a third time. But Buttercup didn't have time to care about what was in her eyes. She was still trying to process what Blossom had just said.

"Is something in your eyes, Bloss?" Bubbles asked with a curious tilt of her head.

Had Blossom really been with Bellum the whole time? Because Buttercup distinctively remembered a completely _different_ set of events.

Butch and Blossom had set up the signs together, and…they were together…during thhhheee…barrel incident?

"Nothing. I'm, well, winking." Blossom answered sheepishly.

No. Buttercup had been with Butch then. They had been shooting baby powder at each other.

Okay, then, they were definitely partnered up when they had to screw in some green-tinted lights and—

"That's not winking." Bubbles pointed out innocently, "That's just blinking."

No. She had been with Butch then too because she had caught him trying to nab some, and he had wanted to put them up in the boy's little makeshift gym, and then they started talking about lifting weights, and shoot!

What _had_ Bloss done with Butch?

"I'm not winking?" Blossom asked.

"Ohmygosh," Bubbles giggled, "Do you not know how?"

Oh shit. Oh _shit_!

 _She_ had spent most of the time with Butch! Not Blossom! Urggh! Oh crap! She had messed up majorly! And maybe Blossom was bringing it up because she wanted her to back off. Damn, she hadn't been trying to step on any toes! She hadn't even noticed! She had been too busy…spending time with…Butch.

Man, separating work from pleasure was going to be a lot harder than she had thought. Maybe this matchmaking stuff wasn't so easy after all. Buttercup frowned. She had some major work to do. She couldn't let any girl get between Bloss and Butch, herself included!

"I know how to wink!" Blossom argued, and Bubbles laughed.

* * *

"Why a horror movie?" Bubs complained eyeing the cabin-in-the-woods-esque movie poster with distaste.

They were currently in line to see the new movie for team(s) bonding night, as Bubbles usually called it.

"Because if I have to sit through another boring fucking movie, I'm going to hurt something." Butch huffed, as they waited in the ticket line.

Buttercup was actually kind of psyched to see this movie. It had been on her to-watch list the moment its' trailers had hit. It was almost funny that they were seeing it tonight because she had just been talking about it in gym class with this one girl named Claire, who was equally into horror movies. It was almost like fate or something.

But Buttercup was also excited because it was a _horror_ movie, and horror movies were basically a one-way road into a jumpy, cuddly romance! Not that she knew that personally or anything, but that's what all the movies said and who was she to deny Hollywood's favorite teenage trope?

All she needed to do was make sure two certain love birds sat next to each other! On a more embarrassing note, she needed to make sure that she herself wouldn't be sitting next to one love-bird in particular. She wouldn't be making any mistakes like last time. No, this time, things were going to work out!

So far, though, she hadn't been able to shake the guy. Butch would just materialize next to her out of thin air. So, she was always trying to make sure he was at least in Blossom's proximity, but whenever Buttercup snapped out of her gross Butch induced haze (she needed a new hobby), she'd realize Bloss had gone and run off somewhere else!

You'd think the girl didn't have a crush on the guy or something! Seriously, Buttercup wanted to know how she was so casual about it. Buttercup felt like she was always tripping over her colossal clown feet whenever he was around. It was embarrassing.

"Hey," Butch bumped into her, "you listenin'?"'

She looked up from the ground as they shuffled forward in line, "Uh, yeah, sorry, what?"

He rolled his eyes and frowned, "I _said_ , I heard the actress who plays the demon or whatever actually got possessed."

"Oh shit. Really?" Buttercup whistled. Demonic possessions were no joke, she would know, Townsville crazies had an absolute obsession with the occult and, unfortunately, she and her sisters were the ones who were often called in to deal with it when the freaking priests just weren't cutting it anymore.

"Pretty tight, right?" Butch nodded excitedly, "I fucking hope something finds its way out of the screen."

"I don't!" Bubbles hissed in front of them, "Why can't we watch something normal and safe!"

Blossom made a thoughtful noise behind them, "I certainly wouldn't want to deal with anything otherworldly on our only night off."

"It's that or Miss Pedigree's School for the Hopeless Romantic." Brick pointed out, "So either way…"

"…we're doomed!" Boomer whined.

"One won't kill us!" Bubbles protested, "and it looks cute!

"Ugh, no." Buttercup agreed with the boys wrinkling her nose at the offending movie poster, "You couldn't pay me to watch that hot garbage."

Like, Buttercup knew that if she really thought about it, the other movie could be used as a way to split up the group and get Blossom and Butch, which was now the pair she was tentatively calling Butchsom (it was a work in progress), alone. But…

"Even I'm not _that_ desperate." She scoffed, as she accepted a high-five from Boomer.

"Desperate about what?" Blossom asked curiously.

"Nothing." She answered quickly and looked back over at Bubbles, "Anyway, it's just a movie and even if it was possessed," Buttercup reasoned, "out of all the movie theaters in the world that are showing this movie right now, why would the demon decided to possess this one, soooooo…" She pushed her way up to the ticket booth, "six tickets for 'Death Promised'."

"With our track record?" Blossom snipped, "BC don't jinx us."

The movie theater lobby had that pleasant buttery popcorn smell, but Buttercup was too stressed to properly enjoy it. Before she could strategically pass out the tickets, they had all been greedily swiped from her hands. From her totally indiscernible (a word she had learned from Bloss's word-of-the-day calendar), staring no one was sitting next to the right person!

Butch was next to her. Blossom was between Boomer and Bubbles. Brick…well, it didn't really matter to her where he sat, but the _important_ people were all mixed up! Blossutch (?) was all mixed up!

Once again, she'd be forced to think on her toes.

They stood huddled in a group, and as the rest of them talked snackage, she stood there glowering at their shoes.

"It's highway robbery." Brick continued the same spiel he always ranted on about when they went to the movie theater. Sure, she agreed, the prices here were too high, but he never could just lay it to rest.

"Brick, you can't complain," Blossom argued, "you've literally committed highway robbery."

And figuratively, if the rumors about him selling cigarettes to the underclassmen at school were true. Those kids were being robbed blind.

Brick shot Blossom a glare and crossed his arms, "You can't prove shit."

"I still want the mega slurpee." Boomer hummed, looking at the board with a smile.

"Dude," Butch gave him a look, "didn't you just have one at the gas station?"

Boomer scoffed, insulted, "I didn't have just one. I had _three_ , and I want another one. Your point?"

"The point is," Brick interjected, "you're going to miss the movie because you'll be pissing the whole time."

Butch snorted in agreement, "Like last time."

"My body. My choice." Boomer shrugged, "Boom. Feminism. Right, Blossom?"

"Don't drag me into this."

"See, she agrees with me!"

"No, I don't."

"She does!"

"Urgh!" Bubbles cried, bouncing from one foot to the next, "Now I have to go to the bathroom! Someone get me popcorn and a soda. I'll meet you all in the theater."

"Oh!" Bubbles called as she walked away, "And some chocolate!"

"Wait…is everyone getting their own popcorn? Because I'm not paying these capitalist pigs any more money than I have to." Brick protested.

"Dude, save it for your blog," Buttercup complained with a huff (she was too stressed for this), and Brick sent her a pointed glare while the three others shared a smile.

"She's got you there." Butch snorted.

"It's not a horrible blog." Blossom shrugged, "Not the best, but not horrible."

Boomer shook his head in agreement, "I usually just look at it for the pictures."

"Literally," Brick snarled, "I hate _all_ of you."

He turned on his heels and walked away from them towards the concessions line. Boomer laughed and hurried off after him, "Hey, you aren't going to vague post about us again, are you?"

Blossom shook her head with amusement and turned back towards her and Butch.

"You two coming?"

"Actually, Bloss, can you get me some stuff, maybe sour worms, I don't care. I think I'm going to go find and check out our seats." Buttercup asked as casually as possible.

"Sure!" Her sister smiled and walked towards the line.

"I'll come with you," Butch suggested.

"No!" She said a little too quickly and laughed awkwardly to brush it off, "Stay here and help carry the food! You know they'll need it!"

She was already walking away from him before he could protest, "See ya!"

She dashed into the theater, still pretty empty, since the movie didn't begin for another twenty minutes and scanned for their seats. Row F seats 1 thru 6. They had taken up a whole section, so that was convenient. No weird stranger would mess things up for her. A lucky break for sure (or just poor writing).

She stared at the little gold-plated numbers bolted to the chairs and willed them to move to the places she wanted them to. It wasn't like Blossom, lover of organization and numbers would ever sit anywhere but where her ticket told her to, which was far away from Butch's aisle seat.

Urgh! If only she could move the seats!

…

Oh, _snap_! She had an idea, and she needed to work fast!

Quickly, Buttercup looked from side to side. The theater was still relatively empty, so, with a wicked smile, Buttercup ripped the gold-plated number off from the first seat, Butch's seat, with ease. Then, she ripped off the next one and quickly, with her handy-dandy heat vision, melded the number 2 onto seat 1.

Seat 1 became 2. Seat 2 became 3. Seat 3 became 1. Four and five switched places. And six stayed six!

She stepped out into the central aisle, hands on her hips, to admire her not too shabby handiwork with a proud smile.

"What's your deal?" Brick asked, hands full with exactly one popcorn and one soda, behind her.

She froze, dropping her hands to her sides, and fought the panic that rose up to her throat.

"Nothing. Just finding our seats." She answered quickly.

He nodded slowly, "Kaaayy…well, congrats, you found them. May I?" He said with a snarky gesture towards their section.

She rolled her eyes and moved over for him to get by, but not before giving him a quick bow.

"Certainly, my liege." She snorted, trying to hide her rising anxiety.

He smirked and strolled into their section. Where he then stood in front of what would have been seat 3 but paused before sitting. She stood on edge as she observed him and watched as his eyes took in the mismatched numbers. He took a slow sip of his soda, but with a quick shrug, the puzzled look left his face, and he took a step to the left to sit down in the seat formally known as Seat 2.

She plopped down next to him in seat one, which was now _currently_ known as seat 2.

A moment later, the rest of their group filtered in. Boomer smiled triumphantly as he carried a slurpee container the size of his torso. He plopped down into seat 6 and began his quest to suck that damn cup dry.

Blossom, with the help of Butch, balanced a few bags of popcorn, candy, and sodas between her arms. As she passed out the various snacks, a bag of popcorn tilted away from her grasp, and Butch's hand shot out to steady it.

Buttercup watched from the corner of her eye, as Butch and Blossom shared a smile.

"Thanks!" Blossom beamed, and Butch shrugged, his hand still basically on her arm. He was really, like, lingering there, which Buttercup didn't get, because, like, his hand really didn't _need_ to be there.

"No big deal, klutzy."' He snorted, and Blossom seemed to affectionately (?) roll her eyes.

Buttercup turned her head away quickly when she felt her chin jut to the side in annoyance and took a deep, cleansing breath. She hadn't been aware that Butch also called Blossom stupid nicknames. That was a new development for sure.

Like, Buttercup didn't care that he did. Whatever. It didn't affect her whatsoever. In fact, that whole moment she had just laid witness to, only reinforced the need to get them together quicker. Obviously, they were super into each other, and Buttercup was totally supportive.

It wasn't like she was jealous!

Nope.

She was pleased about it.

"You're strangling your candy." Brick pointed out, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I know that!" She snapped and ripped open the bag before stuffing a handful into her mouth.

He blinked and took another long, slow sip of his drink before looking away.

As she chewed her candy, she began to relax a little. If anything else happened between Butch and Blossom, it wasn't like she had to watch. She had Brick to block her view, which honestly felt like both a blessing and a curse.

Yep, everything was going according to plan, plus there was no way she could sabotage Blossom on accident! The seats had been set up perfectly: her, Brick, Butch, Blossom, Bubbles, and Boomer. And nothing could change them now!

She slunk down into her seat and took another breath. Yeah, everything was fine. She felt basically at peace until Bubbles' voice cut through her breathing exercises.

"Switch seats with me!" Bubbles demanded, moving to stand in front of Brick.

He looked up from his phone slowly and popped his gum before answering, "I'm comfortable."

Bubbles was apparently having none of _that_ and lifted the boy up by the collar of his hoodie to face level.

"Switch seats. With. Me." She again demanded through a very forced smile and even Buttercup shrank a bit into her seat. Whatever had bitten her ass Buttercup didn't want any freaking part of it.

The cool, defiant façade that made up Brick melted from his face, as he paled, which for an asshole ginger, was _not_ the best look.

"Fine," He conceded quickly, "but not because you told me to!"

Bubbles dropped him, and he went stumbling down the seating aisle while she plopped happily down next to Buttercup. The content look on her face was short lived though, as she snapped her attention, unfortunately, towards Buttercup.

"Switch seats with me. I want the aisle."

Buttercup huffed. Was this seriously what this was all about? She was acting so weird! But Bubbles' eyes were doing this creepy, menacing thing that made her not want to argue.

"If you wanted the aisle, why didn't you just say so?" She sighed.

"Just switch with me!" Bubbles whined with a stomp of her feet, and Buttercup huffed again, annoyed. She was such a baby sometimes, like seriously, this wasn't a big freaking deal.

So much so that Buttercup didn't even bother putting up a fight, since _seriously_ it was no big deal, and stood with her snacks in hand, "Fine."

Bubbles quickly bounced into _her_ seat, and Buttercup got comfortable in _Brick's_ seat. Whatever.

A warm, husky voice tickled her ear, "Your sister is so fucking weird."

She snorted, leaned in towards Butch, and whispered back (so the monster next to her wouldn't hear), "Preaching to the choir dude."

They shared a smile as the theater gradually became darker and the trailers began. She smiled slightly at the screen and fidgeted around to get comfortable. She had to admit the seat she had ended up with was pretty good! No one was in front of her, so no screen blocking. To her left, if she got too scared, which she wouldn't (duh), she could hold Bubbles' hand, and no one would be the wiser. Bubbles certainly wouldn't tell; she'd probably be the one to initiate it anyways.

To her right, Butch's solid, sturdy figure was sort of a comfort. The way he sat made him lean towards her, and every time their shoulders brushed, she couldn't help but appreciate how warm he felt in the cold theater.

Yeah, this was a good seat—

 _Wait._

She whipped her head to her left and stared at Butch, the screen illuminating his outline, as he brought another comically large handful of popcorn to his mouth.

Dammit!

She wasn't supposed to be sitting next to him! That was the whole point! She looked around in quick horror. Bubbles was already shielding her eyes from the screen, Bloss and Brick looked bored, Boomer looked like…well, he really needed to just suck it up and go to the bathroom. How he had managed to slurp down that gargantuan slurpee in such a short period of time was beyond her.

But she was getting off-topic. Boomer's bladder didn't matter! The boy next to her did, and now she was stuck sitting next to him. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. So much for her awesome plan! Stupid Bubbles.

Okay, whatever, this was fine. She just needed to be cool. At least, Blossom was still right next to him, that at least hadn't changed. And now, at least, she could more easily observe them. Even try to get Butch to make a move! And hey, maybe he wouldn't even need her help anyway. There _had_ been the whole popcorn thing earlier. That was a good start, right?

The memory made her stomach churn and her fists clench, but she ignored the reason why. She'd just bottle that allllll up and glower about it in the shower later!

She could make this work no problem!

Except twenty minutes later, Bubbles was latched onto the right side of her body trying to hide and Buttercup, after a particularly jarring moment, she'd admit that much, found herself latched to his.

"Shit!" She hissed, as some of the sour gummies she had been eating fell to the floor.

He tore his eyes from the screen and laughed down at her, "Are you seriously scared?"

"No!" She whispered-yelled, letting his arm (Side note: god his arms, right? Stay tuned for more on _that_ topic, tonight at 5.) out of a vice grip.

The real answer though was a resounding _yes._ One thousand percent! This movie couldn't possibly actually be legally allowed to show! But she'd die before she admitted that out loud.

To prove her point, that she _wasn't_ scared, she took a chance and peeked back at the screen. She would not confirm or deny the squeak that may or may not have possibly escaped her mouth, as her eyes went wide with terror.

A millisecond later, her face was buried in his shoulder. Pride be damned.

"You are!" He goaded, and there were a few theater patrons (Blossom _and_ Brick included) who shushed him. She would have shushed him too if she hadn't been overly busy trying to regulate her breathing.

"Screw you." She instead mumbled after a moment, refusing to move her face from his shoulder. It was protecting her from the horror on the screen and her embarrassment.

Offhandedly, he kind of smelt nice. Like, was he wearing cologne, or did boy deodorant just smell like that? Also, good to know he was wearing deodorant, 'cause there were a few times when they were younger, and she seriously thought he'd never catch on.

Butch continued to snicker but turned his eyes back towards the screen. Eventually, the movie fell quiet, and even though she knew, just knew, it was a trap, she again chanced a peek. A tiny one, so she wouldn't have to completely leave her safe little hiding spot.

It was, of course, a jump scare. Typical. Totally predictable. But the way Bubbles screamed, and jumped off of her and onto the floor, combined with just the surprise of a jump scare, Buttercup may have let out a small, truly insignificant, not noteworthy, eep.

Again, Butch laughed. Only he could laugh during a horror movie like this. She shouldn't have been surprised. A few days ago, when they were telling him how they had basically destroyed a monster (to death! _Really_ want to emphasis that), you would have thought they'd been doing stand-up. Seriously, there was something loose in his head, but she guessed she liked that about him.

After his laughter had subsided to chuckles, he whispered (as much as he could) warmly into her ear, "Here…hold up," and pried her arms off of his.

She absolutely hated that she was now exposed! Her only other shield from this stupid movie (i.e., Bubbles) was on the ground, trying to hide behind her legs. She also selfishly hated that they were no longer touching, but that was now what she labeled a 'Bad Thought'.

She wasn't exposed for long though, because he put the arm-rest dividing the two of them up, threw his arm around her petrified shoulders, and pulled her in close. She quickly curled fully into his side and was now able to bury her head into his chest, which was, and this was a nice surprise, much more comfortable than his arm.

"You were killing my arm." He muttered quietly into her hair.

Buttercup shrugged an apology hoping he'd understand and groaned, "Just tell me when it's over."

She screwed her eyes shut as the screams from the movie filled the theater. She didn't want to sound crazy or anything, and she didn't want to assume anything, but she thought it'd be fair to point out that maybe Butch was more scared then he was letting on.

That is if his heartbeat was anything to go by. It was just as erratic as her own! She was about to call him out—she really should have called him out—but he had such a way of making her _not_ call him out. Because a few seconds after she realized he must have been scared, he began to trace absentminded patterns on her arm. And, _whoosh_ there went the thought.

He was nice(-ish), and sturdy, and safe, and she really did try to fight the smile off her face. Seriously.

God, she was so freaking gross.

* * *

Brick, who was bored and openly looking at his phone (and also holding a slightly distraught Blossom's hand) looked up and rolled his eyes as Boomer sat back down in his seat, "Did you seriously go pe—"

"Don't say that, man!" Boomer whispered-whined back, squirming, "Or I'll have to go again!"

The idiot had already missed most of the movie.

"That's allll your own fault." Brick huffed and went back to the post he was drafting for his blog, ignoring the movie screen in front of him. Movies like these didn't freak him out. Films like these were like his typical Tuesday. He _was_ partially created by a demonic entity. He sighed but squeezed Blossom's hand in reassurance when she slightly started.

"Ugh," She turned from the screen with a quiet sneer, and he looked over at her, "maybe we should have watched the school one."

"Don't be such a girl." He mocked, knowing that would piss her off. He liked pissing her off.

But before she could retort, Boomer leaned in towards them, "Hey," he whispered loudly, "I didn't know this was a 3D movie! That's cool!"

"What?" Brick's eyes jumped back to him, and he scowled, "How can it be 3D? We don't even have glasses? Don't be stu—"

Brick trailed off and finally looked at the screen around the same time the screams in the theater started to turn from "horror movie fun" to "life-threatening terror".

Right in front of them, before their very eyes, it would seem that the demon that had just been causing terror in the movie, was now ripping its way out of the screen and into the theater.

And blinking a few times wasn't making the monster go away much to Brick's disdain. His mouth fell open. How the fuck was that possible? Ugh, he didn't know why he even bothered asking. They did live in Townsville, after all.

It was literally hell on Earth.

Next to him, Blossom sighed, as people began to run from the room, released his hand, and stood.

She tsked, shaking her head and glared daggers at Buttercup, who was untangling herself from Butch (thank fuck he had managed to grow a pair, holy shit). "See," Blossom huffed in a very Blossom manner, "I told you so."

"I hate this movie!" Bubbles cried from the popcorn littered floor.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

 **(1)** I've scraped and restarted this _whole_ chapter a million times. And I feel bad because it will probably read like a filler to you all, but it was just getting too big, so I had to split it up or I was never going to finish it. So, I'm sorry but's it's just not going to be good, okay? Just take the garbage, I'm sick of it. I tried though I really did. FYI I also edited chapters one and two. Now I can look at them without completely dying on the inside.

 **(2)** Thank you so much to all the positive reviewers, especially to the ones who stuck up for me in the comments. That was incredibly sweet and you didn't have to do that! I've got some pretty thick skin, so you don't need to worry about a few negative reviews scaring me off! People can say whatever they want. For real, I'm writing fanfiction for a _children's_ _cartoon_. I've already hit rock bottom. Nothing can hurt me.

 **(3)** In advance, I'd like to give my condolences to people who actually know how to play volleyball. I truly did not want to write a whole freaking game out, but it was the only way I could freaking connect the pieces of this chapter together. It's a whole 15 million pages of bs for _only_ like two sentences of fluff because for fuck sakes I hate myself!

As always, I don't own the ppgs. Now, please, enjoy my feminist propaganda 😉 (tw; crude sexual language at the end of the chapter)

* * *

The inspiration for her newest and greatest idea for operation 'Blotch', as she was now officially calling it, had come to her like all great ideas usually did—in a moment of self-deprecation.

She and her sisters had just gotten back from an emergency call. There had been a monster attack, and the fight had _not_ gone in her favor. Not only had she been smashed into the concrete _thrice_ , but her "friends" wouldn't stop sending her the newsreel clip that not-so-kindly played the beatings on loop.

Buttercup (after tossing her phone to a dark corner of the room) had been sitting on her bed, with a good solid inch of dirt encasing her body, cursing the world, her bad luck, and everything else that had been going wrong that week when Blossom had reentered their room. She had been showered, fresh, and as impeccable as ever. To say the least, judging from her appearance, no one would have ever guessed that a stupid squid-monster had almost made calamari out of _them_.

Buttercup had pointedly ignored Blossom's entrance because, for one, she had still been feeling pretty sour over how the fight had gone down and partially blamed their "fearless leader"; two, because Bloss had just previously yelled at her about getting dirt everywhere like it was her fault they had beaten her to the showers; and three, because, well, it was just that…

Urgh!

Of course, Butch liked someone like that! How could she have been so damn dumb before?

Buttercup's frown had deepened and she ended up sneaking another peek at Blossom, who had stood in front of her vanity meticulously attending to her hair. Naturally, Blossom, of course, had gorgeous hair. Silky, straight, and desirable. Opposite of whatever the short, cropped mess was on the top of Buttercup's own head.

Everything about Blossom was beautiful.

She had that hourglass shape models' strived for, tits, which puberty had refused to give to Buttercup, and she made anything, even her old sleep shirt, look like lingerie. The only other person she knew who could compare was Bubbles.

(And Ms. Bellum, but she was in a league all of her own)

On the other hand, Buttercup had the body of a tall-for-his-age 12-year-old boy who had a problematic relationship with shampoo.

Listen, she wasn't jealous of her sisters' looks. She had gotten over that _forever_ ago. She was fine being the ugly triplet! To her, it honestly made complete sense why Butch would be into Blossom. Boys his age were into bodies like that. They'd probably do anything for bodies like that. It wasn't any big deal to her.

 _Seriously._

Sometimes Buttercup even actually felt kind of bad for Bloss. Literally everybody ogled Blossom the second they had the chance. Buttercup had caught so many of them in the act that it was frankly laughable. Poor Bloss, she had this crazy, unbelievable mind, and those assholes only cared about, well, her ass!

And that train of thought had gotten Buttercup thinking. If Butch saw, actually saw, how crazy guys, girls, and all their friend's in-between were for Blossom, she'd bet he'd finally just suck it up and ask her out already. It'd probably put the fire under his feet, so to speak.

And just like that, the idea had hit her full on the face. It was an idea Buttercup honestly didn't want to do because she had never wanted to stoop this low, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and those two idiots had forced her hand.

Yep, it had looked like it was finally time to appeal to the more _physical_ part of their attraction. And Buttercup had figured she'd need help. She had let out a deep, defeated sigh, and had looked over at Bubbles, who had _finally_ stepped out of their shared bathroom.

To put it simply, and to save everyone the boring, embarrassing details, she had roped Bubbles into this mess by fabricating some fake story about an arbitrary online dating site that had stressed how important it was to "dress to impress boys" or some nonsense like that.

Bubbles, in all her mystifying girly-ness, had immediately pulled up an actual article and had then proceeded to ask her (very loudly) if it was the particular article she had been talking about. For simplicity's sake, Buttercup had said sure in an attempt to get her to _shut_ _up_ because Blossom still couldn't know.

So, that was when Bubbles (after a significant amount of nudging on Buttercup's part) proposed that on her day to pick the outfits, she'd just make all three of them look really hot, so Blossom wouldn't be suspicious. Everyone was already used to Bubbles playing dress-up with them anyway.

"But," Bubbles had cooed, "Butters don't worry. I'm going to make you look so good, Butch is going to just push you against the lockers, grab you by the face, and—"

"Stop being weird!" She had squeaked, face going red, as she smothered her sister with a pillow.

And that was how Buttercup had come to find herself walking the halls of Pokey Oak High, in a dress she swore broke all kinds of dress-code protocol.

And she was absolutely _dying_ of embarrassment.

"Shit, Utonium, what bet did you lose?" Butch snorted and slammed her locker door shut.

Buttercup rolled her shoulders as she redialed the code, "Fuck off."

Bubbles had seriously kept her word and had gone all out with these outfits, but Buttercup still somehow looked like glitter-vomit. The same though, could not be said for Blossom. She looked amazing and beautiful, and it was exactly everything Buttercup could have ever wanted. Bubbles had even somehow gotten Blossom's hair to hold a curl, which was just downright awesome!

So, Buttercup thought, gritting her teeth, why the _fuck_ was Butch not cooperating with her plan?

The boy in question gave her a cheeky smile and slammed her locker door shut again when she could finally see straight enough to reopen it.

"Is it going to be one of those days, Butch?" She asked, speaking through her teeth.

"I haven't decided yet." The boy shrugged and leaned against the row of lockers to study her, "Ask me again after second period."

"Great." She made eye contact with Robin, who gave her a quick sympathetic smile before turning back to Bubbles.

They hadn't even been at school for more than five minutes, and all he had done was give her a headache without even having the decency to check her sister out. On the other hand, Brick, who appeared out of fucking nowhere (the sneaky shit), had immediately checked Blossom out.

"You look like a disco ball's tampon." Brick grimaced with a sad shake of his head and saddled up next to his brother. Butch snorted in agreement, and Buttercup's mood further soured.

"Why, thank you, Brick." Blossom sighed as she collected her books, "' It's always a real pleasure hearing you string together words like that."

Brick smirked and open his mouth to retort, but before he could, the angry little entity with blond hair that Buttercup affectionately called 'sister' invaded his precious personal space.

"She does not!" Bubbles, huffed, sticking up for her sense of style, "She looks great!"

And Buttercup nodded in firm agreement. She didn't need Brick planting anymore stupid little seeds of doubt in Butch's head.

"She does." She scowled, "So shut it."

Blossom sent her a small smile, and Bubbles perked up a bit.

"See!" Bubbles puffed up, and pointed over at her, like her opinion on fashion actually had some weight or something, "Buttercup agrees."

Brick rolled his eyes, and pushed Bubbles a good few feet away, and briefly turned towards her, "Careful BC, your Stockholm is showing."

This earned another snort of agreement from Butch, and Bubbles gasped offended, "What are you implying!"

"You know _exactly_ what I'm implying." Brick shot back, crossing his arms.

"Brick." Blossom muttered offhandedly, shifting through some of her notebooks, "Not this again."

"You're a fashion disaster." Brick accused Bubbles, ignoring Blossom.

There was another gasp, and the other kids that were littering the hallway started to fix their attention on the pair.

"You're a fashion disaster!" Bubbles fired back, her voice rising in shrillness.

"You're both fashion disasters." Robin piped up. Bubbles and Brick flashed critical eyes at Robin, who stared back at them like they were crazy, "We've literally already settled this."

"Rob it's not worth it." Blossom sighed as she rooted around in her locker.

"Exactly. It's not worth it, because I'm not the disaster! He is!" Bubbles huffed and began listing off with her fingers exactly why he was, "All you do is wear that dumb hat! You're wearing socks with sandals, right now! And you think wearing sweatpants and Hawaiian shirts to press conferences is okay! You don't get an opinion!"

"It. Is. A. Look." Brick clapped back with a snarl, "And at least I don't _force_ my siblings into atrocities."

Buttercup pinched the bridge of her nose as she watched Bubbles turn pink, then red. That was never a good sign. Freaking Brick and Bubbles got into it every other month, and she was sick of it.

(Even if the atrocity thing wasn't so far off in Buttercup's opinion since she could confidently say that looking like Bubbles' favorite magic girl anime wasn't always a good thing.)

Buttercup just wanted _certain_ people to acknowledge that Blossom looked great! Just now standing at the lockers, four different boys had ogled Blossom in passing. Buttercup was highly aware of it, but it didn't seem like Butch was.

He hadn't even bothered to give Blossom the time of day yet, and it pissed her off. Like what the hell else was she supposed to do? Rope Blossom into a wet t-shirt contest? This was ridiculous! The outfit wasn't leaving much to the imagination, and here he was, seriously for the first time in his life, being a decent, wholesome young man!

And people said chivalry was dead!

* * *

Somehow, amazingly, ignoring the growing argument between Bubbles and Brick, Butch's thoughts were anything but the thoughts of a decent, wholesome young man.

His tongue-tied as he watched Buttercup reach down in a huff to fix the translucent, black socks a little higher up her thigh. The adjustment did nothing, absolutely nothing, to cover-up the inch (inch and a half?) of skin that had been left exposed by her dress.

All he wanted to do was fall to his knees, and stare, and imagine what that little sliver of skin would feel like under his hands, and _fuck_. This wasn't fair. He had three, _three_ classes with Buttercup, and he could hardly get through any of them without getting distracted on a good day.

He felt the heat in the pit of his stomach grow, and out of sheer panic, slammed her locker shut to distract himself from her plunging neckline and the flimsy little strap that kept slipping down her shoulder.

Buttercup tore her eyes away from the escalating fight behind them and pouted up at him. It didn't help his growing situation.

"Dude."

He shrugged, happy to have her attention again, but at a loss for words. The small, tiny part of his brain that wasn't a degenerate chided him for acting like a 13-year-old. It told him that slamming lockers wasn't the right way to get a girl's attention, no matter how confused they made you.

But slamming Buttercup's locker shut was better than listening to the other part of his brain telling him to indulge in the idea of slamming her against the locker, grabbing her by the face, and—

"You look good."

The statement ripped Butch right out his fantasy. _Who_ in the ever-living fuck had decided _that_ had been okay to say _out loud_?

"Do I look good?" Buttercup huffed, "Because I'm pretty sure I look like a glittering grass stain."

Butch's eye twitched, as Mitch laughed back, "It's not _that_ bad. Bubbles?"

That little, crooked tooth, trailer trash, mother-

She exhaled and inspected her uniform, then nodded over at their arguing siblings, "Who else?"

"Well, like I said—" Mitch smiled and reached over to fix the strap that had slid down her shoulder, "sorry it was bugging me—not that bad. Not her usual work."

"Uh, okay. Thanks." Buttercup shrugged, and Butch grounded his teeth together.

When he had woken up on the couch this morning, because a cereal slurping Boomer had decided to watch morning cartoons on top of him, Butch had had the feeling that today would push his anger management skills to the brink of no return. And it seemed that Mitch, the skeevy little bastard, would be confirming that.

And Buttercup? Well, she had never liked unsolicited touching before, so why the hell was today any different and with _Mitch_ of all people?

Five seconds away from exploding, Butch twitched, once, twice, three times, and Mitch's hand still seemed to lay heavily on his girlfr- _Buttercup's_ shoulder. The familiar crackle of energy swarmed around his fists, as he straightened himself up off the lockers, but before anything good could happen, Blossom yanked him back from advancing. He had _almost_ completely forgotten she was even there.

It was hard to ignore such a fucking nag though, always going on and on and _on_ about stupid little humans, and how fragile they were. Butch didn't give a fuck. Especially, right now.

"Watch it!" Blossom hissed, and Butch turned to glare at her, looking her up and down twice to assess whether or not he could get away with disregarding her suggestion. In that stupid outfit and impractical shoes, the odds looked pretty damn good.

"Oh, please." Blossom rolled her eyes, her grip tightening, "Like I don't know how to weaponize a high heel. Don't even try it."

"Oh, please." Butch mocked, and leaned close into Blossom with a low growl, "Like I'm afraid of high heels."

* * *

Buttercup's seething continued. Now, for an entirely different but somewhat related reason.

She had just seen Butch—the _fucking_ pig—actually checking out her sister! Her sister! Butch! He had actually gone and done it!

And now? Oh, ho, ho. And now! Butch and Blossom were getting all cozy right there in the middle of the hallway! And she couldn't fucking hear a word they were saying because they were talking too low and fucking Mitch wouldn't stop gabbing in her ear!

"Yeah, so like my grandma's going to be out. She has a poker night or something."

"Yep." She growled, more focused on Butch and Blossom. She just couldn't believe them. Sure, sure. Yes. This was what she had wanted. Yep. Exactly what she had wanted! So, pray tell, why did she feel like _punching_ them?

"Yeah. She's going with her meet-up group. Told me not to wait up for her."

"Cool."

"Apparently, this guy, Fred, he's going to be there. He has a condo in Vegas. He's an ass."

"Totally." She agreed through her teeth, _he_ was an ass, "You're totally right."

She missed how Mitch lit up a bit at the agreement, "Y-yeah. Uh, yeah, he's a douche. Anyway, he left like twenty bucks lying around, and like, I've got the place to myself—"

"Uh-huh."

Did Mitch seriously not understand she did not have time for his stuttering? Out of the corner of her eye, she continued to watch Butch and Blossom whisper. Blossom was keeping a firm grip on his shoulder, and he was doing the same with her wrist, and it was all driving Buttercup crazy.

Like, sure _, okay_! Everyone got it loud and clear! They liked each other! Obviously! But couldn't they do this when she wasn't around? Seriously? Buttercup knew for a fact that no one liked watching PDA! No one!

Like freshmen were walking around! People who had basically just turned fourteen! There was no reason they all had to be subjected to this…this…sexual tension! It was like the two of them were just begging for her to interfere and put a stop to this disgusting bullshit!

"—yeah, and there's this new movie I wanted to watch, so I was thini—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Buttercup waved Mitch away, "That's great. Can you hang on for a second?"

"Uh, yeah, okay."

With an unnecessary show of force, Buttercup shoved her way between Butch and Blossom, and sneered, "Wouldn't want Mrs. Diaz catching you. She's a real bitch about PDA."

"I'm sorry?" Blossom asked, her eyebrows furrowing together, but her convenient "confusion" was drowned out by Butch.

"Well, aren't you just the expert." He insinuated.

She turned fully to him, cutting Blossom from his view, "What did you say?"

"I said, you're the expert. How could you not be?" He repeated with a mirthless smile.

She was glaring now, "What does that mean?"

Behind her, someone was telling Bubbles to calm down, as Brick mocked her about something, but Buttercup kept her eyes and attention evenly on Butch.

"Just makes sense, you know, you knowing how Diaz is with PDA. How else could you and Mitchelson snuggle up without knowing?"

She gaped at him, "Mitch? As in Mitch Mitchelson? Me and _Mitch_?"

"Oh, are there more Mitch's we don't know about?" He scoffed, and she almost laughed at the accusation's ridiculousness, but stop herself because, like, _who_ did _he_ think _he was_?

He was the one literally cuddling in the halls with her sister!

"And what does _that_ mean?"

"I don't know. It depends on how many other guys you're getting cozy in the halls with."

"What the fuck is your problem today?" She accused, crossing her arms, "You've been up my ass this whole morning. Are we gonna have a problem?"

"Are we?" He mimicked, squaring his shoulders.

"We aren't!" Blossom barked, cutting in, "Both of you back down. This isn't the time or the place."

"Stay out of it," Butch growled at Blossom without breaking eye contact with her.

"Don't fucking talk to her like that." She retorted.

"Buttercup!" Blossom grab her by the shoulder, "Seriously, it's not the time! I need your help here!"

Eyebrows furrowing, Buttercup turned, ending their staring contest and ignoring how Butch smirked in victory.

"Wha—ugh, Bubbles!"

The fight between Bubbles and Brick had escalated. Brick looked incredibly smug, as Blossom tried to push him away. Buttercup, just in the nick of time, managed to contain Bubbles in a vice grip and pulled her back from attacking. In hindsight, she probably should have stretched more this morning, this was going to kill her arms, but how was she supposed to know Bubbles was going to go feral today?

"God, Brick, fuck off!" She demanded as Bubbles fought against her hold.

"Me!" Brick barked.

"Him? Tell your sister to chill the fuck out!" Butch hissed in his brother's defense.

"Let me go!" Bubbles thrashed, "I'm going to make him eat his hat!"

"Everyone, please! There are civilians!" Blossom tried to intervene, pushing their non-super powered friends out of the way.

"Fuck 'em!" Butch sneered.

And it was around then that Boomer strutted up to the scene. His lazy grin disappeared, and he pulled away from the group of guys he had been bullshitting with.

"Hey, wait!" He yelled, hurt evident in his tone, as he looked from one group of siblings to the next, "What's going on? Are you fighting without me!" He cried out, shocked.

"Why didn't you tell me! That's not fair!" In a flash, he inserted himself into the middle of the chaos, "Fuck you, Blossom!"

Blossom, the epitome of frustration, slapped the middle finger out of her face, and glared, "Why are you yelling at _me_?"

The fight paused, and everyone looked over at the cheeky smile that slowly spread across Boomer's face.

"Idk," He shrugged, and his eyes landed on her randomly, "I just like being included."

He looked her over once, twice, and then finally a third time before his mouth fell stupidly open. Finally, Boomer let out a low wolf whistle, before meeting her eyes, "Damn Buttercup. You don't like making things easy on us poor guys, huh?"

* * *

The tension in the air changed in an instant. After recovering from the severe case of whiplash that came with it, Butch watched as whatever fight he had ignited in Buttercup slowly fade into confusion. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't share in her ignorance.

He hated his brothers.

Buttercup's eyebrows stitched together for a moment, "What?"

"Yeah," Butch agreed with a low growl, "What did you say, Boomer."

Boomer ignored him, though, and winked at Buttercup, "BC, you don't have to play coy with me. I know a few games we can play that are _way_ better anyways."

"Excuse me?" Buttercup's eyes widen a fraction as she began to catch on.

"Hey, you're excused." Boomer continued with an appreciative hum, "You didn't get all dolled up just for me, did'cha?"

Butch noted with a certain level of horror that Buttercup turned pink at the suggestion, and he shot Boomer a dangerous look.

"Fat chance, Boomer. I don't dress for anyone." Buttercup said, crossing her arms with a side-eye look, "What's your deal?"

Boomer threw his hands up in mock surrender, "Just wanted to scope out the competition, that's all _cupcake_."

There was a silent pause as onlookers looked from Boomer to Buttercup with wide eyes and for good reasons too. Even Butch would admit, he could hardly get away with calling her pet-names without receiving a bruise or two.

"Nope. Try again." Buttercup deadpanned, and few members of the group snickered.

"Sunshine?" Boomer tilted his head in thought, and she shook her head.

"Honey-bun?"

"Don't even think about it."

"Sweet-cheeks?"

"Are you trying to make me sick?" She growled, becoming more ticked off with each name.

"Oh!" Boomer smiled and nodded as he threw a friendly arm around Buttercup and pulled her close, "That's right! I remember now, you like being called _Butterbabe_."

Butch knew she absolutely did not like it when _he_ called her 'Butterbabe', and he used it quite often, but when _Boomer_ said it, Buttercup's arms fell to her sides stunned.

"H-uh." She looked over at Boomer with wide eyes and color refilling her cheeks as she tried to step out from under his arm, "No, I don't! What the hell!"

"Hey, it's alright if you're shy. Just take the compliment, for now, Butterbabe." Boomer laughed, and Butch's body tensed in sync with Buttercup's, "We can talk one on one later if the crowd's freaking you out."

"Boom," Buttercup whined, ducking her head down, "dude, screw you."

"Only if you want to!"

Brick rolled his eyes, "Should the rest of us leave you two alone?"

"Aw, Brick, ya can't blame a guy for trying! How can anyone resist someone so cute!" Boomer cooed with a smile and pulled an escaping Buttercup back into a tight hug.

"Oh my god, Boomer, stop. You're such a fucking flirt." She huffed, attempting to fight against his hold and push him away.

Butch glowered because Buttercup wasn't wrong. Boomer was a flirt because that was Boomer's M.O. Brick was the brains, he was the muscle, and Boomer was the undeniable charm. It was a consistent dynamic that, up until right now, Butch had never thought was going to be much of an issue.

"Well, it's true, Brick," Bubbles agreed, coolly looking up from her nails with a sickly-sweet smile, "how can he resist? She's irresistible because that's how _I dress her_."

Brick's head snapped towards her dangerously, "I swear to _fuck_ if you say that again—"

"Oh no—" Blossom sighed.

"—not again." Robin finished.

"Bubbles!" Buttercup huffed, quickly stretching her arms for round two.

While the rest of the group was distracted, Boomer finally acknowledged Butch out of the corner of his eye with a devious little smile, "Oh, hey _Butchie_ , didn't see _ya_ there."

Butch hand shot out on its own accord, and he pulled Boomer in close by the collar, "The hell you didn't."

Boomer laughed, "Listen, sorry, but I'm just saying what everyone's thinking." He looked back over at Buttercup and shrugged innocently, accusingly, "I'm just doing what you're too chicken shit to do. I mean, it'd be a crime if no one did, right?"

Boomer met his eyes again, and it was like his brothers had a death wish because he didn't even balk at the look Butch was giving him. And considering the fucking beating Butch had recently put him through, (where he had left Boomer's semi-conscious body swinging from the ceiling fan) after Brick had pulled off that stupid couch stunt with Buttercup, the lack of self-preservation with this guy was astounding.

In all fairness, there probably wasn't much more Butch could do to either of his brothers that would entice a healthy amount of fear out of them, but the move Boomer was pulling right now felt just a little too ballsy for Butch, so he was willing to put in the effort.

'Sides, scaring the shit out of Boomer was the good, fun stress reliever he needed right now.

"Chicken shit." Butch repeated his grip, tightening, "Sure about that?"

Boomer continued to smile, "Aw, come on, bro, I wasn't actually going to do anything."

"You're a shit liar," He hissed, and Boomer's eye furrowed in offense.

"Dude! Why do you both keep sayin' that!" Boomer huffed, struggling out of the vice grip, "' I'm an awesome liar! Here, watch! Hey, Bubbles!"

Butch dropped Boomer's collar as the rest of the group turned to stare at them.

"Don't listen to Brick. Neon's not gaudy and pairing it with the glitter is a bold move that I admire."

In an instant, Bubbles lit up, "Really! You do? Thanks, Boomie! I was try—"

"See!" Boomer laughed, poking Bubbles on her cheek, "She totally believed me! I'm a great liar!"

"Oh, shit." That one Michael kid had muttered, as he and a few other non-super powered kids ducked back into their hiding spots.

" _Excuse me_?" Bubbles squeaked dangerously, slapping away Boomer's hand and whatever peace they had just accomplished.

"Thank you!" Brick said, exasperated, "Finally, someone who gets it! Boomer, get over here, and continue to insult all her insecurities with me!"

"Wish I could, Brick!" Boomer pouted, "But you know I like to have a clear schedule before I devote my day to pissing Bubbles off. I've got a test to study for that I'm going to knock out of the park, so I can't get distracted." Boomer announced swaying on his feet confidently.

"I'm right here!" Bubbles stomped, and the school shook for a moment.

"Bubbles calm down. They're just trying to egg you on—"

"Bubs for real—"

Blossom and Buttercup chided at the same time, as the school stabilized, and Buttercup pulled Robin, the only brave non-X human away from the zone of danger.

"Seriously!" Bubbles squeaked back, and somewhere Butch heard a few windows breaking, "Tell _them_ to knock it off!"

Brick, who was now entirely focused on Boomer's lack of obedience—the fucking god complex his brother had was laughable—ignored Bubbles, "Aiming for a D isn't knocking anything out of the park."

"Dude! I'm not aiming for a D!" Boomer boasted proudly back to Brick.

"What test are you even talking about?" Robin piped up, peeking out from behind Buttercup.

"History!"

This time the tension in the air wholly and rapidly dissipated. After a pregnant pause, Buttercup cleared her throat.

"Boom," She grimaced, "our test is today."

"Yeah, sure," Boomer rolled his eyes, "good joke Butters."

"I'm not joking."

"Oookay." Boomer nodded and then again winked over at her, "Hey, maybe you and me should go on a study date tonight, huh?"

And Butch would have killed him right there if Buttercup and everyone else who shared the same history class hadn't looked so bewildered.

"Dude," Harry spoke up, peaking from around the corner, "she's, like, she's right. The test is today."

A few other people nodded their heads.

And that's when Boomer's face filled with dread, "What."

Butch snorted, not bothering to hide his approval. It served him right.

"Yeah, Boomer," A guy named Joey frowned, his head appearing above Harry's, "Sorry."

"What! No! It can't be today!" Boomer turned back towards Buttercup, "Why didn't you tell me!"

"We've been reviewing for a week." Buttercup protested, rolling her eyes, "I texted you like two days ago."

Butch's ego deflated as fast as it had inflated, "You text Boom—" he began.

"I thought you were just joking! Why would I ever study that early in advance!" Boomer interrupted in a panic and grabbed her by the arms to shake her. "I'm not Blossom! I have a life!"

He let out another cry, mumbled something about summer school, and sank to the ground like he was melting, "I'm not a neeerrdd. I'm not like Bloooosssoomm."

"O- _kay_ , yep," Blossom squeezed her eyes shut and sighed, "and with that, I'm going to class."

Blossom grabbed her bag from the floor, and then dragged Brick by the shirt, "Come on. You're done here."

"No, I'm not." He fussed, trying to pull himself free.

She yanked him back, "Yes. You are. We all are! Everyone get to class."

"But—" Bubbles began, and Blossom gave her an icy stare.

"Class!"

She had a look in her eye that made the blood in Butch's veins go cold for a moment, and even though he held his ground a little longer than everyone else, he couldn't help but remember how she had a particular way of… _compelling_ him into cooperation.

Buttercup peeled Boomer off the ground and passed him over to Robin, who had the same first hour. Then, for a split second, she made eye contact with him, before turning away and walking off with Mitch. He almost called after her to start their fight back up just to get her away from the guy, but the moment had passed.

That's how they worked. Fight. Move on. Wait till next time. So, Butch stomped away as well, but not before throwing one final glare over his shoulder at Buttercup and Mitch's retreating forms. If Mitch was smart, he'd consider thanking Boomer. It was that bastard's lucky day.

Or, huh, maybe not. After all, Butch thought with a dark grin, they did have gym together.

* * *

"Who shoved sticks up their assess?" Brick asked her with a melodramatic sneer when they began their walk down the hall towards first-period honors English. He almost sounded confused. A real welcomed rarity coming from the ever-confident know-it-all.

Brick was referring to her sisters, and, of course, _just_ her sisters. Not his brothers. No. No. No. Never his sweet, dear "little" brothers.

Blossom sighed and refrained from pointing out that he was the one who had caused a majority of the problems this morning. But because, for once, he wasn't directly blaming _her_ , paired with the fact that she really just did not feel like putting up with it today, she went with the next easy answer.

"I don't know. They won't tell me." She frowned, "I think it's about Butch."

"Ooh," He said with sudden realization, "they still don't know you know?"

While Blossom wasn't one to complain, the whole situation with Butch had been frustrating her for a few weeks now. She hadn't meant for it to dominate most of the discussions she had with Brick, but he was the only one who knew that she was well aware of the fact that their siblings had mutual crushes on each other. Not counting that one encounter with Butch, but that boy was so dense he had yet to put together what she had really meant.

Brick hadn't even asked if she had known. He had just assumed, and it was refreshing that at least _someone_ had enough confidence in her intelligence. Too bad that someone was _Brick_ and not her own sisters.

Usually, Blossom didn't mind being left out of the gossip or the typical trivial events of high-school life. She had way more serious situations to worry about, like saving lives, to genuinely care about "who was into who". But she felt vastly different about these opinions when the ones leaving her out of the gossip were her own sisters.

For lack of a better phrase, it seriously sucked.

"No. And I keep dropping hints that I do." Her eyebrows furrowed, "This morning, I tried to facilitate girl talk, and even that fell flat."

"Girl talk?" He asked with no indication he was actually interested, but at least he was indulging her.

"Well, at the very least, I tried. I brought up a few authors that I like." She said simply, and then, when she realized the look he was giving her, she deadpanned, "Attractive ones."

"Uh-huh." Brick responded slowly, "And that didn't work? I just can _not_ believe it."

Ignoring the sarcasm, she hummed a disappointing agreement, "I was trying to get on the whole "who's your type, this is my type" subject. It didn't work."

"I'm shocked." He said dryly before asking, "You have a type?"

"Not the point."

Brick shrugged and readjusted his hat, "Why don't you just tell her you know like you did with Butch? Thanks again, by the way. _I_ got blamed for that."

She decided against pointing out that his hat was a blatant disregard for dress code (again), and told herself it wasn't worth the argument ( _again_ ). Instead, she slowed them to a stop right outside their classroom and paused to think through what he had said.

Brick paused with her, and waited, as an inscrutable look seeped onto his face. Maybe it was boredom? Honestly, she had no idea. When he wanted to, Brick had an infuriatingly incredible poker face. Better than her own by far. It was annoying.

"Please, Brick. Your black eyes healed just fine, did they not? Get over it." She allowed herself the small pleasure of watching him glower for a moment before his face settled back into a blank stare while she continued, "But to your main point, no…no. I can't. I know she'll tell me in her own time."

In a moment of reflection, Blossom fussed with her ponytail and further explained, "She's weird about these matters, and I'm not mad or anything. I just figured that at _least_ Bubbles would have cracked by now. I swear she almost did a few days ago." Blossom trailed off, noticing that Brick was looking hard at his shoes rather than listening to her. "Brick?"

"Hmm?" He looked up like he was surprised she was still there, "Oh, sorry, I'm not over the idea that you have a type? It's just weird when I remember that innately you're still a sexual being."

"Har. Har."

A smirk crawled back onto his face when she glared and pointedly looked away.

"What?" He snorted, "I'm kidding. But seriously, though, Blossom, you have a type?"

Blossom had no idea why she had ever assumed he would have taken this conversation seriously.

"Whatever." She sighed, shaking her head, and they entered class, "Why don't you just tell Butch that Buttercup likes him, and we can just put this all behind us?"

"What? Are you crazy? And miss watching two dumbass jocks figure out feelings for the first time?" He looked over at her like she had grown two heads, as they took their seats, "Fuck no."

"They aren't your social experiment."

"You wanna bet?" He asked, popping his gum, which was another school violation.

No hats. No gum.

Blossom sighed.

Brick would truly be the death of her.

* * *

Gym was the second to last class of the day. In general, the day hadn't been going well, but Butch still thought that his therapist would have been proud, since, at least, no one had _died_. That was always something to be proud of, right? From the perspective of a therapist, sure, probably. From the perspective of the patient undergoing anger management? Well…

Butch punched the nearest gym locker hard enough that it collapsed inward and broke off its hinges.

Brick's eyes went wide with shock, which settled into a glare as he held his gym shirt to his chest like he was some lady who had just been caught naked, "Okay! Unnecessary!" He chided, "The fuck is with you?"

Butch didn't answer, but Boomer, who had dropped to the floor to avoid Butch's fist, whined from the ground, "That was _my_ locker! I put my notes in it! How can I study," He asked, popping back up, and trying to set his door right, "if I can't even get to them!"

"You're still on that." Brick huffed; his scoffing slightly muffled as he wrestled the gym shirt over his head, "Move on, bud."

Boomer grabbed Brick by the neck and forced his head towards the ruined locker, "Use your fire breath! Melt the door off! Do it! Do it!"

"Hey! Get the fuck off—" Brick pushed Boomer off, "that'll just burn your notes too, dumbass! Je _sus_ fuck. You two today!" Brick huffed and sat down on one of the locker room benches.

"I'll use lasers! Laser vision!" Boomer scrambled helplessly, "Right?"

"Wrong. Different means. Same end." Brick shook his head, slightly amused, and snatched the history book Boomer hadn't put in his gym locker away.

"Hey! Give it back!"

They went in circles like that for a while, but Butch was still seething, so he paid them little attention. After his little bout of property destruction, most of the other guys in the locker room had scattered away, deciding to give the three brothers a wide breadth.

Some, though, some like _Mitch_ , still lingered, maybe a little too used to these sorts of outbursts from Butch on a more personal level, or maybe because it was some sort of pissing competition between the not x-infused kids.

He'd fix that though, he thought, as he sucked on his piercing.

He'd fix that starting with Mitch, so he could pay for this morning. Then, Butch would move onto scrawny, sickly little Elmer, who thought he had been real, real clever in chem knocking, stumbling, and bumbling right into his pretty lab partner every chance he got. And finally, if Butch aimed whatever throwable sports equipment he got his hands on _just_ right, he was going to send something flying so hard it smashed through every wall until it reached Ms. Marlo's 6th period English class, and hit Pablo in his stupid fucking head.

Maybe that would teach him to pay more attention in geometry, and not on Buttercup's ass. Frankly, Butch would be doing these teachers a _favor_ knocking a few lose screws back into their places.

Actually, he thought to himself, as his glare settled on Elmer, he should probably start with the snotty fuck first. Buttercup was always making sure people were nice to him, so she probably wouldn't like it if Butch maimed him right in front of her. He was pretty sure he could get Elmer to fit inside one of these lockers. If not, fuck, these bathrooms hadn't been cleaned in ages, and Butch could get creative when he wanted to.

"Ey, meathead!" Brick snapped, kicking at Butch's knees to get his attention, "You're making the kid cry. Stop staring."

Butch snarled his distaste at the idea but reluctantly complied, freeing Elmer from his death glare. He didn't need shit getting back to Buttercup, and that kid was a notorious narc.

"What is with you, huh?" Brick sighed, finally handing back Boomer's history book.

Boomer clutched the book tight to his chest and squatted over in a corner a safe distance away from where Brick lounged, "Yeah, you've been weird since this morning."

"This morning?" Brick hummed in thought, and then understanding dawned on his face, "Oooh, I get it."

Boomer nodded along too, confidently, "Right, me too."

"Reese Pieces—"

"Indiges—Reese Pieces." Boomer sagely nodded along, ignoring the dumbfounded look Brick was giving him.

"Shut the fuck up, both of you." Butch spat and looked around in a quick panic for anyone who may have been listening.

"What for? Afraid someone may figure out we _aren't_ talking about your favorite piece of candy?" Brick commented dryly, referring to the semi-clever, but not-so-clever codename he permitted them to use, if (and only _if_ ) it was absolutely necessary. It dawned on Butch, at that moment, that for someone who was always telling everyone else to shut up, Brick had never been too good at it himself.

"Come on, Brick." Boomer tsked as a wicked grin formed on his face, even though his eyes were glued to the pages of his history book, "It may not be his favorite candy, but it is his favorite piece of as—"

"Shut up!" He hissed again, and Brick rolled his eyes.

"Whatever, man. This isn't my problem, but I swear if you get into any legal trouble over a fucking _girl,_ I'm _not_ bailing you out." Brick, the King of Hypocrites, argued back with a huff.

To their credit, though, neither Boomer or Brick flinched when Butch proceeded to punch in another locker, but at least, it did finally get them to shut up.

On the other hand, the other boys still left in the locker room, started to scramble, squeezing against walls in an attempt to look smaller on their way out. It almost felt good that they knew better than to stick around, but unfortunately, he had just decided that he actually _would_ be pulverizing Elmer before class started, and his window of opportunity was quickly closing. He didn't want the little rat to slip away with the crowd.

Brick watched the other boys scramble, and then, with a lazy yawn, stood as if the locker door next to his head had always been demolished.

Stretching, he sighed, "Fuck, I don't want to go to gym. I want to take a nap. Hey, Boom, forge us some notes."

"Brick! I'm busy!" Boomer whined, still in his corner and mostly ignoring them, as he flipped through the water-stained book, "I'm going to fail! I can't do a summer with Mrs. Burk! I'll get committed before I do that!" He ranted, more to himself than anyone else, "Yeah…committed…I'll just get committed."

Brick shook his head and shrugged, "Fine, if you were smart, you'd listen to me, but whatever. I think I have some leftover ones around here somewhere."

Any other day, Butch would have reinforced Brick's idea, for Boomer's sake, but fuck him; Butch was much more concerned about his little date with Elmer anyways.

* * *

This morning had left a horrible taste in her mouth, and it hadn't gone away since. All she could think about was how stupid she was about everything, and how much she wanted to get out of school. The one day devoid of all criminal or monster activity was, of course, the day she needed the distraction.

Seriously? When was the last time she had actually had to sit through a whole day of school? It was making her antsy. She took a deep breath and shot Bubbles another half-smile when the other girl again threw her a worried look.

Buttercup got dressed for gym quickly, throwing her dress into the little locker and locking it. Usually, she liked gym, but it sure was a nuisance when they had the class on days Bubbles decided to dress them.

More often than not, Bubbles' days lined up with health class, but Buttercup was committed to torturing herself, so she'd just have to put up with Bubbles yelling at her for ruining her hair or makeup after whatever workout Coach put them through.

"BC, you good?" Blossom asked, cornering her before she could slip out.

"Fine." Buttercup shrugged and brushed past her out of the locker rooms.

She had hardly looked at Blossom all day. Granted, they only had gym/health together, but frankly, right now, Buttercup thought one class was just one too much.

And that wasn't Blossom's fault per se, but Buttercup was still feeling a certain way after this morning. It wasn't jealousy, of course, but it was two-parts unexplainable annoyance and one-part pure rage. She tried her best beating it down, but the past two weeks she had spent bottling up her emotions were starting to get to her.

Seriously, after taking all these L's, she really needed a win.

Saddling up next to Robin and Claire, as she usually did before this class started, she tried to ignore everyone and everything until the Coach's whistle blew and ended their warm-up.

"Aight, settle down! Peterson! Knock that off!" Coach yelled, "Now, listen up!" He waited for the talking to quiet down, and continued, "As you can see, I've set up nets. No lean—Jojo!

"What." Brick huffed, and Butch grunted. Coach frowned and zeroed in on the one brother who hadn't responded.

"No, not—Boomer! Put the book away, this ain't English!"

"Yeah!" Boomer agreed frantically, finally bothering to look up from his book, "But maybe it could be History!"

"I want that book back in the locker room."

"But!"

"Put it away!" Coach yelled, and waited a few moments until Boomer cooperated, before beginning again, "Now, no leaning on the—for god sakes—Michelson! No leaning on the nets!"

When everyone was sufficiently quiet, and Boomer had been pulled back from the locker room, Coach scanned over his clipboard, maybe taking attendance (maybe), and announced, "Are we missing someone…whatever—you're all playing volleyball."

There was a collective groan from the audience that caused Coach to look up with a glare, "You heard me. Volleyball. And all of you will be playing!"

"Um no," Brick drawled and waltzed up to the front with a smirk, "they're playing volleyball. I have a note."

"A note?" Coach's eyebrows knitted together.

"A note." Brick agreed and waved a pink slip in front of Coach's face.

The older man's glare intensified, and he snatched the paper out of Brick's hand. He examined it for a moment, probably for any inconsistencies, but even Buttercup knew that was futile. Brick sold those suckers for a mean penny. They were _good_. And like she had guessed, Coach relented.

"Oh well, you can go sit—"

"—way ahead of you." Brick called from the indoor bleachers, laying down.

Coach didn't get a moment of peace before another note was waved in front of his face.

"I have a note too!" Boomer begged, and honestly, her heart went out to the poor guy, as Brick laughed from the bleachers. He was truly fucked, but she had to admit, she admired his pointless devotion to studying. Still, he was fucked.

"Boomer! Back with the others." Coach huffed, ignoring the torn-up index card that Boomer had somehow produced, and turned back to the larger group, yelling, "Floyd!"

Floyd was, of course, hanging onto the volleyball net, and didn't seem too concerned about being caught.

"Floyd! Are you listening!"

"Me?" Floyd asked, pointing to himself, and frowned when the Coach gave him a look, "I'm Lloyd! That's Floyd!" He whined, pointing to his brother, who, in turn, paused for a moment.

"Dude, I thought I was Lloyd?"

"Nah—wait who has the birthmark? Turn around."

"Stop! No!" Coach waved his clipboard around frantically, as Lloyd (or Floyd?) began to drop their pants, "That doesn't matter! Pants up and off the net, or so help me, you'll both be running for the hour!"

"Whatever." The twins shrugged in unison but nonetheless complied.

Coach let out a deep, long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Anyway, I'll need two vol—yes, Julie?"

Julie Smith—which ugh, gag her—was that typical, "average" all-American popular girl that no one liked, but everyone loved. Her stupid voice only made Buttercup angrier.

"Coach," The hyper annoying blond batted her eyes as she lowered her hand, "can we like not play volleyball, pretty please?"

To Buttercup's left, Blossom let out a deep breath through her nose, and Buttercup, for all her anti-Blossom thoughts, couldn't help but agree. Fucking gym. There were good days. There were bad days. And then, there were days like these.

Coach sighed, ignoring Julie Smith's baby blues, and again pinched the bridge of his nose, "We're playing volleyball, Julie. Now, I'm going to need som—what did I tell you all about the net!"

And yep, as Buttercup listened to the group of guys snicker, she realized that she had finally reached her limit. She slammed her fist onto the ground, and the floor shook with the reverberation.

"Stay _off_ the freaking net." She commanded, glaring at them, and the group sat their asses on the ground as quickly as they could.

"Sure."

"Yep."

"Okay."

"No problem!"

She looked back at Coach and nodded for him to continue.

"Uh, thank you, Buttercup." He paused for a moment, and then regained his thought process, "We need two volunteers for team captains. Any takers." He asked, looking expectantly at Blossom, who, with another sigh, rose her hand in compliance.

"Perfect, Blossom. Get up here. Who else?"

No one else raised their hand. And while Coach did that teacher thing where he stared silently at the class till someone responded, Buttercup continued to sit still in thought, as everyone else began to awkwardly shift around.

If Blossom was a captain, there was a one million percent chance her sister would pick her right off the bat. Honestly, she'd be stupid not to. Team sports was an area that Buttercup obviously excelled in—being on a superhero team your whole life just did that to you.

And if Blossom picked her, that meant Buttercup would have to listen to her, which was the last thing she wanted to do while they were in the midst of a one-sided fight.

Yeah, she thought, _fuck_ that.

"I'll do it."

"Oh, uh, thank you, Buttercup." Coach blinked for a moment in surprise, "Get up here!"

She avoided Blossom's stare as she marched to the front of the class and stood to observe her classmates. Most of them were ignorant of the unprecedented power shift, and the ones that weren't looked at her oddly. She met Bubbles' eyes with her own and shrugged unperturbed.

Bubbles was right though, her doing this was weird. Even when she and Bloss fought, nine times out of ten, Buttercup hardly argued against being second-in-command. But this wasn't like they were saving the day. This was _volleyball_.

"You can have the first pick." Blossom smiled amicably, but Buttercup didn't like her tone.

"No, you can have first pick."

Blossom blinked, "Are you sure?"

"I don't need any favors." Buttercup crossed her arms, and she pointedly ignored how Bubbles' eyes were shooting (metaphorical) lasers into her forehead.

"I'm not giving you any favors?"

"Fine." Buttercup rolled her eyes, "Bubbles get up here."

Blossom's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Strategically, Buttercup knew that it had been a poor move. The right move would have been Butch. That's how it went. Buttercup would get picked by Blossom. The next team moved for Butch. Then, of course, Bloss chose Bubbles.

Butch wasn't the best "team" player. The only one who could really handle bossing him around in a productive manner was Brick, but under the right circumstances, he usually ended up cooperating with Blossom and wasn't that much of an ass (anymore) with everyone else.

Still, what he lacked in collaboration skills he made up for in raw power. He was built like a fucking dam with a mean competitive streak, but so was Buttercup, and on top of that, she had Bubbles, who was a pent-up wild card waiting to explode. For all Buttercup cared, fucking Blossom could have fucking Butch for stupid volleyball too!

Bubbles bounced up to Buttercup, and through a bright smile, whispered, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She hissed back, as Blossom called up Butch.

He stood and walked up, stretching his arms until his shoulders popped. She watched as he shook them out, and when their eyes met, he winked, "Tough shit, Butterbabe," He smirked over at Bubbles, "guess you didn't want to win?"

Bubbles huffed and pouted beside her. It looked like they were both having a rough day.

Buttercup chose to ignore him and the butterflies in her stomach, while she looked over the crowd for Elmer because she was _nice_ and didn't want him to feel unincluded. When she couldn't immediately find him, she glanced at Boomer. Coach was already posted outside the boy's locker room as a guard to prevent Boomer from sneaking off, but the kid still looked like he was itching to escape, and with Boomer, that was never good. Seriously, someone needed to reign that in fast.

But, with a smirk, Buttercup decided that would just have to be Blossom's problem, and called out for Mitch.

"Cool." He ran up to her, and they high-fived.

She glanced over at Blossom and Butch, who was rolling his eyes when Blossom called out, "Harry."

Shit. Maybe she would get stuck with Boomer? Or worse, _Julie_.

"Rob."

Bubbles cheered and pulled Robin into a hug when she got closer.

"If she goes for one of the twins," Mitch whispered, "go for the other one. They're useless apart."

She nodded, and eventually, the class had dwindled down to Julie, who was simmering, and Boomer, who was watching the gym doors like a hawk.

Buttercup sighed and looked over at her team. Lloyd(?), practically in tears, was the only one ignoring her. Bubbles was glaring daggers at Boomer, and it was clear she would not appreciate him being on their team, but the idea of Julie made Buttercup's skin crawl.

And if Blossom got stuck with Julie, well, now that would be fun to watch.

She shot a sympathetic look over at Bubbles and shrugged, "I guess we'll deal with twitchy. Boomer get up here."

He groaned, laid flat on the ground, and rolled his way over. God, that whole freaking family. A bunch of drama queens.

Blossom blank expression wasn't readable, but Buttercup already knew what taboo she had just committed. She grinned at her sister (and Butch) with a shrug, "Tough shit."

Julie glowered at them and stomped her way over to Blossom's side without needing her name called.

Unaware of the tension, Coach clapped his hands to get their attention, "Blossom's serving. Don't forget, get _under_ the ball. No spiking!"

There was a general groan, but everyone walked to their sides of the court.

"Okay, boss! What's the plan?" Mitch smiled, and the rest of her team nodded.

She blinked back at them at a loss. Dammit. The plan had been to win, but she forgot that meant she had to win against Blossom.

"Uh, well…" She trailed off and looked over her shoulder at the other side of the court.

Blossom was serving, and she was already pointing people into their positions. Buttercup shifted and looked at her team. The teams were uneven by one in Blossom's favor, but she had three supers and some pretty impressive nons. Of course, one of her supers was definitely down for the count, and Lloyd was useless.

"Do any of us actually play volleyball?" She asked tentatively and sighed when no one stepped up, "Alright, cool. Bubbles you take a position in the back. I'll guard front. We only get six on the court at a time, so Boomer, Lloyd, go sit out. We'll rotate you in later."

Boomer was off the court in a flash and in coach's face before she could finish her sentence; Lloyd nodded and slumped his way over to the bleachers.

"Robin, I want you and Mitch in the back with Bubs. Claire, Mei, you okay being in front with me?"

"As long as that ball doesn't come near me, I'm good." Mei groaned, "I'm pretty useless."

"Aw, don't say that, Mei!" Bubbles chided amicably, "You're already more useful then Boomer!"

"Butch isn't going to kill us, right?" Claire whispered, and Buttercup smiled.

"Not if I have any say. If he gets the ball, leave it to me, but listen, Bloss is the one we gotta watch out for."

"Yeah," Mitch agreed, shaking his head, "But she's probably twenty steps ahead of us already, there's no way we'll get an edge on them."

"That's why Bubs is in the back."

"What do you mean?"

"Trust me, Mitch, can't predict what you don't know." Buttercup laughed and tapped on Bubbles' head, "I'm gonna need you to get mad."

"I've been mad all day." Bubbles smiled back, hitting her fist into her palm.

"Good. Let's kick some ass."

Her team shared a smile before breaking their huddle.

"About time!" Butch called from the other side of the net, as they got to their positions on the court. She placed herself in the middle of the net, as a blocker, while he took up the left-front, as a hitter.

There was a second of silence, and then, Coach's whistle blew. Blossom flawlessly served the ball hard over the net. It was Robin who made first contact, as a setter and passed the ball up to the front. Mei squeaked as the ball made a beeline towards her, but before she got a face full of volleyball, Buttercup intercepted and hit it back over the net.

Butch was under the ball in an instant and slammed it back over the net towards Claire, who seized up and cringed away from any impact. It was okay, though, because like she had promised, Buttercup was once again there to intercept. She dove for the ball and hit it back up, so her team could get a chance to hit it over.

Mitch ran up from behind and bumped it back over the net.

"Nice one, dude," Buttercup called over her shoulder with a smile.

Mitch smiled back with a shrug, "Thanks—argh!"

In the blink of an eye, the volleyball had collided with Mitch's face with such force that he was flung backwards onto the ground. There was a collective gasp, as the rest of her team ran towards the downed boy.

Coach's whistle blew, as he ran over to her team's huddle, "Butch! I said, _no_ spiking! Do it again, and you're out!"

"Yeah!" She yelled, turning her attention to the other side of the court, "What the hell Butch!"

"Whoops." He shrugged with the face of perfect innocence plastered to his smug facade.

Buttercup scoffed and jogged over to the huddle around Mitch, who cupped his nose and hissed in pain.

"You okay, son," Coach sighed, "let's see it."

Mitch carefully removed his hand, and Buttercup bit back a hiss of sympathy pain, as the rest of the team cringed with a collective 'ooooh'.

"Shit!" He groaned nasally, as the blood gushed down his face, "Is it that bad?"

Coach was already writing out a pass, "Get to the nurse Mitchelson, we don't need you hemorrhaging. Lloyd, take him!"

"I won't go without Floyd!"

The twin was met with a long stare, before Coach shook his head, "Whatever, jus—just go," He demanded, but Buttercup caught him mumbling softly to himself as he walked away, "freaking kids."

Buttercup rolled her eyes at their adult supervision and offered Mitch a hand, "It's not the worst way a guy could break your nose, but still sorry, dude, I should have been there. He juked me."

He smiled through the blood, and shrugged, "He juked us all."

She held out her knuckles and offered up her best, bashful 'I'm sorry smile', "We good?"

His knuckles met hers, "Y-yeah, we're good."

"Good. Take him away, boys." She snorted and motioned for the twins to replace her, "We'll get him back for you."

Mitch laughed as they walked out of the gym, "Hell yeah, you better."

"Boomer!" She called over to the bleachers, "Get over here! You're in!"

He groaned and tried to sink under the bleachers, but was stopped by Bubbles, who with a sweet smile, yanked him up and over by the collar, "She _said_ you're _in_!"

Turning back to the court, she returned Butch's glare before nodding over at Blossom that everything was a-okay.

The team rotated around, and she passed the ball to Boomer, "You're serving."

He let out a heavy sigh and slapped the ball down on the ground before launching it into the air. He smacked it over the net with enough force that it was fast enough to slip by Butch and send the rest of the opposing team scattering. It came down so hard that it ended up leaving a small dent in the (reinforced) floor.

Coach's whistle filled the air, and the game once again paused.

"Jojo!"

Butch groaned, "I wasn't the one who spiked it."

"No, the other Jojo!"

"I'm already on the bleachers." Brick huffed.

" _No_ —Boomer!" Coach cried, a vein popping from his forehead, "Another spike and you're out!"

"Like out of the game for good?" Boomer asked, perking up, "The whole rest of class?"

"That's what 'out' means!" Coach yelled with a frown, "Now try again!"

Coach motioned for Blossom to roll back the ball over to Boomer, and when he had it back in his hands, the whistle blew once more to signal the game had rebegun.

Boomer examined the ball for a moment, before slapping it once, twice, then a third time onto the floor, before he launched it into the air and spiked it directly into Butch's face. Butch fell backward onto the ground with a hard thud as his head connected with the floor of the court.

This time though, there was not a worried gathering, as Brick erupted with laughter so infectious Buttercup couldn't help smiling along.

"Nice shot, Boom." She praised along with the rest of her team, as Coach blew on his whistle.

"Boomer! Out!"

Boomer pretended to look shocked, as he walked back over to the bleachers, "Whhaaa? Out? Ah, that's too bad! Hey, Coach maybe I could go get my hi—"

Boomer catapulted into the bleachers, as the volleyball ricochet off the back of his head with such force that when it finally rolled to a stop, smoke was wafting off of it.

Coach's whistle sounded off, "Butch! Out!"

"I didn't spike in-game!" Butch protested, dropping his arms from the position they had been in when he had spiked the ball.

"You could have hurt someone!" Coach argued back, and for a second, Buttercup wondered if he had forgotten who he was dealing with.

Butch wrinkled his nose with a dry laugh, "But it was _only_ Boomer!"

"Out!"

Rolling his eyes and grumbling, Butch jogged over to where Brick was howling with laughter.

Coach looked down at Boomer, "Son, you okay?"

"Can I get m-my b-bo-book now, please?" Boomer asked, lifting his head slowly, as a shaky hand pointed towards the boy's locker room.

"No!"

And as Brick wheezed his way through a fresh round of tears, Boomer fully collapsed down onto the bleachers with a groan.

* * *

She hadn't been disappointed about Butch getting kicked out of the game for long. Sure, it would have been fun to get a few points past him for Mitch's sake, but she had bigger fish to fry.

Rotating to her new position, Buttercup turned to her sister on the other side of the net. Her team was now two points ahead, and Buttercup couldn't help the smug smile that spread across her face.

"Worried?" She asked Blossom through the net. They were both crouched—stances ready for the next serve.

"Me?" Blossom asked and tilted her head in thought for a moment. "No, I'm fairly confident my team will be just fine," She shrugged casually, "Why?"

Buttercup felt her eyebrows knot together, "Because it's only you, and I've got Bubbles."

Blossom looked side to side, and then back at her, "It looks like my team's still here?"

"You know what I mean." Buttercup glared.

Blossom regarded her for a moment, and the corner of her mouth ticked up, "Buttercup, come on now, don't tell me you forgot?"

She searched Blossom's face for an answer, "What?"

But Blossom didn't have a chance to respond because Coach's whistle blew and the ball had been served.

It soared over the net, and Robin was under it in a second. Robin (who probably should have actually joined the volleyball team because, holy shit, she was good—that beautiful little minx was always full of surprises) effortlessly set the ball up high into the air towards Bubbles.

Buttercup readied herself. So far, when Bubbles had a shot, she took it, but every once in awhile, at last second, she'd fake the other team out and bump it up towards Buttercup, so they'd have a better shot at attacking the gap left in Blossom's defenses.

But Blossom was a fast learner, and Bubbles knew that just as well as Buttercup did. They'd have to switch it up eventually, and there was no better person at pulling a fast one over Blossom like Bubbles. No villain—not Princess, not Brick and the boys, HIM or Mojo—had ever surprised Blossom like their sister could. Even she couldn't, and she had a good grasp on over one hundred different forms of fighting.

(A bit of an overkill, yeah, but she took the "toughest fighter" thing pretty seriously)

Bubbles didn't hit it to her, though. Instead, she bumped it into the air towards Claire. There was a three-bump rule, and the fourth hit had to go over the net, or Coach had an aneurysm. It had been established pretty early on in the game that Claire was a passer. She just couldn't get the air she needed to get the ball over the net and around Harry, who was blocking on the other side.

Surprisingly though, Claire positioned herself for a hit over the net, so Buttercup positioned herself so she would be ready for the likely defense. But at last second, Claire threw a smile over at her and then turned back to Henry with a wink, before she set the ball backwards towards the middle of their side of the court. Buttercup smirked. It looked like Bubbles wasn't the only one people underestimated.

Her sister was already in the air, mid-jump, ready to strike the ball over the net. Fortunately, for them, Blossom's side of the court wasn't ready for the sudden change-up, as most of them had gathered towards Claire's end of the court in case it got over or they had needed to defend against Buttercup.

The ball landed aggressively on the other side, barely missing Julie, who had hardly been paying attention. The girl jumped back with a yelp, as Coach's whistle sounded off.

Bubbles landed back on the ground with a small frown and moved to wipe the sweat off her forehead

"That's a spike! No point! Bubbles watch it, or you're out!"

"What!" Robin groaned, "No way! She was just trying to get it over!"

"Yeah!" Claire echoed, "Come on!"

"That was totally a spike!" Harry shot back, and Claire glared.

"Oh, shut up, Harry."

His eyebrows furrowed, and he opened his mouth to argue, but a hand on his shoulder silenced him.

"It's okay, Harry." Blossom smiled and turned to Coach, "Coach Ryder, it's fine. Give them the point."

"Huh?" Coach asked.

"Huh?" Harry repeated.

Blossom nodded reassuringly at both of them, "They can have the point. It's okay. Trust me. It was an impressive play, and it's not like it hurt anyone."

Julie scoffed, "Speak for yourself. I almost died!"

Coach ignored her and looked at Blossom, "Are you sure?"

Blossom nodded again and met eyes with her. That dumb secret little smile was back on her face, and Buttercup felt her eyes narrow on their own accord.

"I'm positive."

She gritted her teeth. Her team didn't _need_ the pity point. They were now three points up. If anything, Blossom's team _needed_ help! So, what the hell was she missing? What did Blossom know that she didn't? She examined her team and saw nothing unusual.

She glared at Blossom as they repositioned themselves on the court.

"You're still not worried?" She grunted at her sister through the net, trying to hide her unease.

The ball was served, and Blossom jumped, blocking the attack and hitting the ball back over onto their side of the court. Buttercup didn't turn around though, the shot was idiotically directed towards Bubbles. It was a rookie mistake, especially for Bloss—

Coach's whistle sounded off, interrupting her thoughts, "Point. Blossom's."

Blossom landed back down on her tiptoes and readjusted her ponytail, "No, Buttercup, like I said, I'm not worried at all."

Buttercup whipped her head in surprise and looked over at Bubbles. She felt her eyes widen with comprehension, as she watched Bubbles, stock still, staring down at her hand with disgust. Honestly, she could have slapped herself for being so naïve. She had worked Bubbles too hard! She should have rotated her somewhere else! This was all her fault!

As she continued to examine Bubbles, a drop of sweat rolled down the side of her sister's face, and Bubbles' nose scrunched up with distaste. How could Buttercup have forgotten about the "No Sweat Rule"! She could have screamed! Blossom always played the long game; she must have been waiting for this!

Buttercup cursed under her breath. She should have changed up game strategies while she had had the chance. Focused more on defense than offense, which would have given her power hitter the breaks she needed. It was too late for that now, though. What she needed to do was buy some time.

"Time out!" She called, her hands forming a "T" and ignored how Blossom smiled.

"Buttercup, we don't have any time—" Coach began to huff, but she cut him off.

"Time out!" She barked again and looked pointedly over at Coach, who shrunk a little and nodded in compliance.

He whistled twice and called out, "Time-out. Teams huddle."

"Bubbles." She hissed, as the team members, she still had huddled around her, "What the hell?"

Bubbles hmphed and crossed her arms, "I'm getting all sweaty and gross! We still have seventh period, and I don't want to ruin my make-up!"

"It is _seriously_ not the time to worry about your stupid makeup!" Buttercup argued back, "I told you I needed you to get mad!"

"I did get mad for you!" Bubbles shot back, "But you know where I draw my lines."

"Bubs," Robin spoke up, "You get sweaty all the time when you save the day. How is this any different? You can fix your make-up."

Bubbles pout intensified, "Listen, it is different! I've never ever gone one day ever without redoing my hair or makeup or having to change my clothes. This is the longest I've ever made it! I'm not going to ruin that for a dumb game of _volleyball_!" Bubbles' bottom lip trembled, "And I don't care what anyone says, I look cute today!"

" _Bubbles_ ," She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, annoyed, "It's just _one_ game of volleyball."

"Yeah!" Bubbles agreed, throwing her hands into the air, "One game of volleyball in a never-ending gym class!"

"It does feel like we've been in gym forever." Mei agreed softly, wiping sweat from her forehead.

Claire nodded, trying to fix the dark eyeliner that had smudged down her face, "Yeah, seriously, I swear it's been over an hour."

"I'm done." Bubbles said with finality, "This is boring, and I'm getting gross."

"Fine!" Buttercup relented, "Go sit out. We can handle this, right?"

Robin nodded, "Totally."

Claire and Mei shared a look before giving her a confident smile, "We'll try."

When they looked back over at Bubbles, she was already gone.

"I'll cheer for you!" She called from the bleachers with a bright smile, "Go Team Butters!"

Buttercup tsked. This was the problem with wild cards. Eventually, they backfired on you.

"Wait—Bubbles, I want you back out on the—"

"She's out, Coach!" Buttercup hissed, "Drop it!"

This wasn't his volleyball court, not anymore. She had a game to win.

"Uh, okay. Sure." Coach sighed, "Blossom's ball."

But as it turned out working with four people, while Blossom still had a full-court was more difficult then she had originally anticipated. And if it wouldn't have made her look like a whiny bitch, Buttercup would have yelled at Coach to even out the teams, but she wasn't going to give Blossom the satisfaction.

She cringed, as Coach again blew his whistle right in her ear, "Point Blossom. Game tied!"

She suppressed the urge to shove that stupid whistle straight up his ass and glowered at the man.

"I know!" She barked at him and walked back to the middle of the court as she rubbed her sore ear.

"Well, BC," Blossom smiled at her, "let the best woman win."

"Pfft." Buttercup spat, looking away from her sister.

"Good luck."

Her eyes narrowed even more, as she focused her glare back on Blossom, "Keep it."

They settled back into their bent-kneed stances.

"Come on, Bloss!" Butch yelled from the bleachers, and Buttercup's heart hit her stomach in an incredibly uncomfortable way that only made her angrier, "Finish her off! She ain't shit!"

She felt her jaw clench and ignored how Bubbles cheered for her in retaliation. Damn, she really wished she hadn't heard that. Green may have been her color, but jealousy still looked bad on her. It definitely made her stupid.

But, hey, she just wasn't in the mood anymore to bottle her emotions.

"Mei? Claire?" She asked, getting her team's attention.

"Yeah—"

"Sup—"

They panted in unison, eyes on her and shoulders heavy from exhaustion. She was pretty proud of them. They both weren't usually the kind of people to care too much about gym class, but they had really put some effort in for her today, and it was impressive.

"Get to the sides of the court." She glared at the calm face looking at her across the net as she cracked her knuckles, "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Hey, don't count us out so early."

"Yeah, we've come this far."

"I'm not." She smirked, "But things just got personal. Go get some water. I'll call you back in when I need you."

"What about me." Robin said from behind, "What am I? Chopped liver? Where's my water break?"

"You don't get one yet." She smiled, her eyes narrowing, "I need you to set me up. Think you can handle it? The rest of this game won't be pretty."

Robin studied her for a moment before a smile of her own broke out across her face. She rolled her shoulders, "Please. This is easier than a cake-walk."

* * *

Butch sat with the rest of the class on the bleachers as they watched Butters and Blossom duke it out on the volleyball court. Even Coach sat with them, his whistle hanging uselessly from his mouth, as he tried to keep up with their superhuman speed.

Frankly, it was impressive that Snyder and Pitts were keeping up as well as they were.

Obviously, Butch kept up with the plays just fine, but everyone else was relying on Brick, who now had a reason to completely invest himself in the game.

"Blossom's ball. She serves annnd saved by BC. Robin sets her up for the spike, and oh! And another win for the house! Pay up, fuckers!"

Buttercup's spike had missed Blossom by a millimeter, barely licking the tip of her ponytail as she dodged out of the way. The ball had come down so hard there was a noticeable dent in the floor and his heartbeat fluttered in a sickening way.

Brick, oblivious to his plight, licked his thumb and index finger with a content hum as he counted through the cash that was begrudgingly shoved his way.

"I want to change my bet" A guy named Kyle cried, "for the overall win!"

Brick scoffed, "Again? Not going to happen."

"I'll throw in a Spicy's gift card! Never used!"

"How much?" Brick's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Butch rolled his eyes. Brick didn't even like Spicy's, let alone spicy food, but they had a few "acquaintances" who did. Mother's Day was coming up, and a certain demonic entity wasn't going to allow them to forget.

"Thirty bucks. I got it for watching my neighbors place."

Brick clicked his tongue a few times, weighing his options, and then shrugged, "Fine, but it's your final offer. You sure about it?"

Kyle faltered for a moment and snuck a look at the court. The girls were getting ready for the next set. It was pretty neck and neck, but at the moment, Buttercup was up by one. It helped that she had more physical stamina then Blossom, but her sister was forcing her to dance all around the court.

Still, not to be sappy or anything, but if he wasn't so interconnected to the "house" (Brick called him security, the lazy asshole), he knew where he'd be placing his bets. She really was something to watch when she got all fired up.

"Uh, yes? Wait, no. Wait, yes!" Kyle nodded, "Yeah, put me on BC."

"Your money, kid." Brick shrugged and updated the whiteboard he had commandeered from Coach, "What about you, Bubbles? You still confident in your—dumb—choice?"

Bubbles' clapping paused, and her bright smile disappeared as she turned her nose up in the air.

"Please, Brick." Bubbles huffed, "Don't you know? I've got a little thing called lady luck on my side."

"And what lady did you steal that from, huh?" Brick questioned.

"I didn't have to steal anything! I'm my own lucky lady."

Boomer, who had finally stopped moaning and crying for a second, laughed dryly from the row of bleachers he was laying on, "Who's calling _you_ a lady?"'

Bubbles dropped a hard fist onto his gut, "Shut up, Boomer!"

Brick rolled his eyes, ignoring how Boomer coughed behind him, "Last chance, Chubbles. There's no way this game's going to end-"

"Call it a women's intuition, Brick!" Bubbles interrupted, her smile all dimples and sparkles, "I'm not going to lose!"

"Again!" Boomer poked, leaning up from his "death bed", "Again with this woman thi—"

Bubbles, sparkles gone and murder written on her face, flinched in Boomer's direction and sent him hiding behind Butch's back.

"It's doesn't matter." Brick shrugged, "Regardless, I'm going to laugh when you lose."

"Too bad, I won't!" She clapped, and the sparkles that seemed to follow Bubbles around everywhere were back in an instant.

(Everyone else swore they didn't see them, but they were fucking there, and it made it hard for Butch to look at her without squinting—that girl was super fucking weird)

"Besides, Brick," Bubbles continued, "I haven't lost a bet against _you_ so far!"

Brick's eye briefly flickered over to him, before he turned back to glare at her, "We'll see about that."

Butch felt his eyebrows pull together, as his eyes jumped back and forth between Squeaky and his brother. That had been weird?

"What was _that_?" He asked out loud, as the rest of the class turned back to the court to watch Buttercup serve.

Boomer, who was now leaning heavily against him, shrugged with a mopey sigh, "I dunno. I dunno anything."

"Everything's pointless anyway. Who cares about anything? No matter what happens, everything just ends in failure." Boomer continued to grovel, and like a good sibling, Butch continued to ignore him.

"Get off me." He said offhandedly and pushed his brother away.

"Dude!" Boomer cried, re-latching onto his arm, "Seriously, bro, you gotta help me out. I'm doomed!"

Buttercup dived for the ball, making it just in the nick of time to bump it back into the air. Robin ran behind her and set it upwards, giving Buttercup a moment to readjust. She flipped her hair out of her face, and Butch drank up the look in her eyes. He had been on the receiving end of that stare too many times to count, and it made his blood pump with adrenaline.

Bouncing his legs, he again pushed Boomer away, "Go bug Brick."

"Nooo!" Boomer whined, pulling at his hair, "He's not listening either! Do you two not understand! I may get stuck in summer school! That means no schemes, no plots, and, more importantly, no video game marathons!"

"Not my problem."

Boomer stood and pulled him up by the collar of his shirt with both hands, "I _need_ those marathons!"

Butch fought against Boomer's hold, as he was shaken back and forth, but it was quite obvious he was having one of his episodes, so Butch was shit out of luck. His brother's eyes were wide and dilated and blue energy crackled around his knuckles.

"I can't take it anymore!" He panicked, "I can't!"

He threw Butch down and zipped across the gym, interrupting the volleyball game and capturing the attention of the class, the kids on the court, and one disgruntled gym teacher.

"Jojo—" Coach started standing up.

"Don't even fucking think about—" Brick began, standing up with Coach.

"Wait, Boomer—" Blossom stumbled, allowing the ball to bypass her and hit the floor of the court.

"I can't do a _whole_ summer with Mrs. Burke! I'll go fucking mental!" He yelled, interrupting them all, and pulled the fire alarm down.

The result was instantaneous. The alarms began to blare, and Butch looked up at the sprinkler system built into the ceiling that began to creak and click to life. Past the alarms, he could hear the all too familiar sound of water and braced himself for the cold.

The gym was filled with the sounds of the siren and kids anxiously beginning to make their way down the bleachers, but from the other side of the gym, Butch could hear his brother perfectly, as the water began to rain down from the ceiling.

"You know, I may not have thought this all the way through."

Screams and groans erupted from his fellow classmates, but none was more piercing then Bubbles.

"AHIEEEEHH!" Bubbles screeched, as she attempted to cover her hair; her eyes flashed dangerously—the telltale sign of a laser beam building up power, "I'm going to _kill_ him!"

"Bubbles, no! Buttercup!" Blossom yelled from the ground and pointed her finger at the charging blond.

Hero-mode activating, he watched as shock melt quickly away from Buttercup's face, and she lunged towards Bubbles, tackling her to the ground and probably effectively saving his idiot brother's life.

To his left, Brick sighed and sat back down heavily on the bleachers. He looked over at the whiteboard and scowled as the water washed away the betting pool.

A single bet still remained: ' _Boomer messes everything up.'_

"Goddammit, Boomer." His brother hissed, and with sympathy, Butch laid a heavy hand on his shoulder.

Bubbles had won.

* * *

Soaking wet and uncomfortable, the class had been marched outside and quarantined from the rest of the school for reasons stupidly Boomer related. Rigidly, she shifted and sighed, stealing another glance back towards her sister and Robin, who were happily chatting away on the outdoor bleachers.

It looked like Buttercup had willed that wet t-shirt contest she had thought about earlier into existence. Too bad they all looked like drowned rats and not the bikini models she had had in mind. Apparently, dark gray gym shirts weren't conducive for wet t-shirt shenanigans.

Who knew?

Buttercup huffed again under her breath and steeled her nerves. While the rest of her class may have been oblivious, she knew there was a real elephant on the field that needed to be addressed, and she had seriously been putting it off.

Harry and Claire, along with a few others, sat with her lounging by the soccer nets trying to dry off in the afternoon sun. They chatted on and off about school and homework, but mostly about the game that had been cut short.

Harry laughed good-naturedly at their more goth-inclined classmate, "You pulled off a few moves I definitely was _not_ expecting."

Claire shrugged with a smile, "Yeah, well, my older sister plays for TU. I guess I picked up a thing or two."

"Oh shit, seriously? Are you going to apply there too?"

"Hey, uh, guys," She smiled with a short awkward laugh, interrupting the two, and pointed over at Blossom, "I gotta go ask my sister something. Catch up with you later?"

Claire nodded, and Harry offered her his fist.

"Okay, dude. Good game." He smiled, and they bumped fists.

"Yeah." She nodded and began to walk away, "Next time we'll have to actually finish it."

"Yeah, but next time, we get Claire!" Harry called after her.

"I'm not that good." Claire protested under her breath.

"Sorry, man, I'm not giving her up." Buttercup said over her shoulder, missing the red hue that crept onto Claire's cheeks, "Why don't _you_ just join the winning team? You've gotta stop fighting it."

Harry waved her away with a snort, "As if."

She laughed him off and jogged over to the bleachers. "Hey," She called up, and the pair looked down at her.

"Hey!" Robin waved, "God, we so should have won, right?"

Blossom rolled her eyes in disagreement, "Please. Two more moves and I would have had you."

Buttercup took the bleachers steps two at a time until she was just a row in front of them and rubbed the back of her neck, "It was a good game, but, uh, sorry it got a bit rough out there."

Buttercup stared down at Blossom's poker face, hoping she'd just accept the apology and move on, but when had things ever gone her way?

"It's okay, but are you mad at me about something?" Blossom's head tilted to the side.

"No," she lied, "but since the city's so quiet I, uh, it's just I have a lot of pent up energy, and I knew you could handle it."

Blossom considered this answer for a moment, and then finally, she nodded her head in agreement, "It _is_ crazy how quiet the city is right now."

"Right?" Buttercup snorted, "I needed a good game like that to calm me down."

Blossom's shoulders relaxed, and her smile reached her eyes for the first time that day, "Well, I'm here anytime! Why don't you sit down?"

"Oh, sure." Buttercup shrugged and tried to shake off the mechanical nature of her movements. Regret seeped into every fiber of her being. She shouldn't have even been mad at Bloss in the first place, and she definitely shouldn't have played the game the way she had. More guilt-inducing, though, was the fact that lying to Blossom was just becoming too second nature. She had never been good at lying before; it made her stomach churn.

"I guess you don't have to worry about your history test anymore, huh, Buttercup?" Robin smiled from the other side of Blossom, "Silver lining and all of that nonsense, right?"

"Plus," Blossom added, "It's a nice day."

Buttercup smiled back at them, trying to shake off the melancholy, "Wish I wasn't soaked."

Blossom rolled her eyes, "Same. Poor Boomer, though. He sure is getting an ear full."

She nodded over to the corner that Boomer had been banished to, while they all waited for both the fire and police department to give them the okay to head back inside. He was surrounded by an angry mob of authority and one very pissed off, make-up smudged Bubbles, who's screeching was putting all of their teachers' lectures to serious shame.

"Pfft," Robin huffed, "You're being way too nice! He deserves it! They're never gonna let us go home. Thanks to him, we're stuck listening to _them_."

Robin nodded down the bleachers towards another group of girls, who Buttercup had tuned out immediately after they had all been forced outside. There was only so much shrill, non-emergency induced screeching her ears could take before she snapped. The group, though, had significantly calmed down, so against her better judgment, as she turned to observe them, she switched her listening ears on.

"It's not all so bad." Julie, the loudest among the group, leered, "At least we get a little show."

The other girls surrounding Julie busted into a fit of giggles.

"Gawd," Julie sighed, "I would mount that boy in a second. Anytime. Anywhere."

Raising an eyebrow, Buttercup looked over at who the other girls were giggling about and found herself staring at Butch. She felt her face immediately warm. He stood with some of the other guys a bit away from the bleachers, soaked to the bone like they all were.

Butch though, well, his shirt clung to him in ways their scrawnier male classmates didn't have to worry about. Not that that was their fault. Butch just obviously worked out more than them. She didn't get why the other girls were making such a big deal out of it.

It wasn't, like, very interesting or anything.

She watched as Butch frowned and pulled the clinging fabric away from his body. It was a pointless effort, though, because when he let go, the shirt again clung tight to his form. Oblivious to the group of girls and their giggling, he started laughing along with the guys at some joke.

Buttercup bit down on the inside of her cheek in an attempt to stop her thoughts before they could wander down the path they had only just started to take when he laughed and smiled like that.

(It was crooked. There was the tongue piercing. He had dimples. She had just recently noticed. It was a lot to think about. End of story.)

No, right now, she'd need to pull it together, especially with Blossom sitting right there next to her.

(Did Bloss think he had a cute smile, though? Could she ask without it getting weird?)

She was about to turn her head away when she caught how his eyebrows pulled together, and he again frowned down at his shirt. From her perspective, it had honestly looked like he was just going to try and readjust the shirt again. To her genuine surprise, though, instead of just pulling the fabric away from his body, he grabbed the hem and proceeded to peel the whole damn thing off.

Her breath caught somewhere in her throat, and without even realizing it, she held it there, as she watched the shirt travel up his torso and over his head. She bit down even harder on her cheek, as her eyes, almost acting on their own accord, roamed shamelessly over the newly exposed skin, too interested in tracing the muscular shape of him to feel embarrassed.

Butch threw his shirt over his shoulders and continued talking to the other boys, but she couldn't manage to give two shits about what he was saying to them. Instead, she tracked how the tiny water droplets fell from his hair to his neck, over his broad chest, and down his torso. In particular, Buttercup watched how one little droplet ran down the expanse of his abdomen, passed his naval, and soaked into the waistband of his shorts. She felt herself swallow thickly, as a hot spark shot through her lower gut.

"Ladies!" Blossom chided with a frown, interrupting the thank you letter she had been mentally drafting to one Mr. Mojo Jojo, "Show some integrity. We're not animals."

Startled out of her staring, and now appropriately embarrassed, Buttercup sucked in a much-needed breath, as she ripped her eyes away from Butch to focus on Blossom.

What had she just said?

"Oh my god," Julie groaned, "Save the lecture for your cult, Blossom, and eavesdrop somewhere else, thanks."

"Watch it, Smith." She growled in her sister's defense, trying to fight the rising flush off her cheeks.

Blossom, though, put a hand on her shoulder, and she quieted.

"It's okay BC," She smiled and turned back to Julie, "I really wish I could Julie, but once again, for the umpteenth time, that would require _you_ to learn how to use your inside voice. You do _know_ what that actually means, right? I'm only asking because it still seems you haven't managed to piece it together."

Julie scoffed, "For your informat—"

"Again, Julie, inside voice. I'm still right here."

Julie's eye bulged, and she gritted her teeth together in a very fake-smile kind of way.

"How's this _Blossom_ ," She whispered with a hiss and leaned towards them, as she twirled her hair innocently, "I would like Butch to raw me so hard he forgets where I end, and he begins. I want a mold of his _dick_ , so even when I masturbate, he's still _fucking_ me. And, when he's done, and I get bored, I'll just move on to the next brother."

"Oh, hey," Robin announced with a bitter laugh, "it _can_ learn."

Buttercup laughed too, but it came out a notch too high and paranoid. On the one hand, she definitely did not like whatever the hell Julie thought she was doing. And she especially did not like how it involved Butch.

On the other hand, though, the fact that there was a distinct possibility that she and Julie might actually agree about a few things, in regards to Butch, was kind of freaking her out a bit. Not that she had ever, like, thought about exactly what Julie had been describing, but well, she had thought about, well, other things and stuff.

Totally more tasteful other things and stuff.

Yeah. Yep. Sure.

She almost chanced a look back over at Butch but decided against it. He couldn't read minds, right?

Blossom tilted her head to the side in a disapproving manner, "Julie, seriously, I just don't know how you aren't ashamed."

Julie snorted, seemingly unaffected by Blossom's words, but Buttercup tensed.

"And why should I be?"

"For objectifying Butch. He's not a piece of meat, he's a person. If we as women demand that men treat us with respect and integrity, we have to act the same way towards them." Blossom sneered back at Julie and Buttercup's mind grinded to a sudden halt because—

 _Objectifying_?!

Oh god. Oh shit. Was Buttercup honestly objectifying Butch? She sucked in a quick breath and let her mortified gaze fall to the ground. That wasn't true, right? It wasn't like she was like Julie! She hadn't ever said anything _out loud_ before!She didn't want to be some fucking pervert. God, and she fucking was! She was a pervert!

Should she apologize?! Did she have to?!

Shit, if she did, he'd _know_ that she had been checking him out! And then, he'd know about all the other things and stuff! And then, most importantly, he'd also know she was a pervert!

But she hadn't meant anything by it! She wasn't anything like Julie, right?

Fuck!

"Oh, please." Julie rolled her eyes, "Spare me the lecture. Besides, Butch is already a show-off. I'd seriously doubt—"

"—That is not for _you_ to decide." Blossom cut her off.

Julie stood, arms crossed, "And is it _your_ decision, then?"

"Obviously, not." Blossom sighed, her voice the closest to a hiss Buttercup had heard in a long time, "It's not my body."

Julie smiled something wicked and cupped her hands around her mouth, "Butchie!"

The entire gym class turned towards her, and then towards Butch, who tilted his head back and scowled at the sky, " _Don't_ call me that."

"Just come here!" Julie giggled, and then snapped her gaze back over to Blossom.

Buttercup watched in what she hoped was a "not horrified" manner, as Butch looked at the other guys and shrugged, before jogging over. When they made eye contact, he smiled up at her, and even though that usually made her heart flutter, this time, she was too overcome with guilt and shame to feel anything else. She threw him a quick half-smile and then dropped her gaze.

Objectifying? God, she was disgusting. How dare she do that to him.

And then, (because, why not?) her brain came up with one worse. How dare she do that to _them_. Buttercup stole a guilty glance over at Blossom. Seriously, she had actually inadvertently made her sister dress the way she had today in hopes that she'd be fucking objectified, and she had seriously thought that had been okay?

Oh, jeez. What a nightmare.

Fuck.

Fuck! She was a freak. She was supposed to love her sister, and she really liked Butch, and this was how she treated them?

"Butch, oh my gawd, why did you take your shirt off?" Julie asked, pulling Butch closer to her by the arm.

"It was wet." He answered, shaking her off, and that made Buttercup feel a smidge better. At the very least, she could take comfort in the fact that he actually had taste and liked someone like her sister instead of someone gross like Julie or even worse, _herself_.

"I like your tattoos." Julie cooed, and her fingers tickled lightly over Butch's back.

She let a deep breath filter through her nose and fought the urge to yell at Julie, so she'd get her grimy hands off of him, but who was Buttercup, a pervert in her own right, to tell Julie to go and fuck off? Just because Julie had the balls to actually go and touch him didn't mean Buttercup was any better than her. She had thought about doing the exact same thing once or twice before too.

"Me too." Butch shrugged.

"Where'd you get them done?"

"Juvie." He pointed at his shoulder and then jabbed a thumb towards his back, "Boomer."

"Aren't you a little young? Isn't that against the rules…or something?" Another girl, Bella, piped up and then shrunk back when Julie turned to glare at her.

Butch shrugged, "Yeah."

"I have a one too." Julie hummed and pulled her shirt down a little lower than necessary (in Buttercup's opinion) to show off the little heart on her clavicle, but before she could see whether or not Butch would take Julie's bait, she forced herself to look away and sighed.

Was she jealous? Was she mad? Was she embarrassed? Guilty? Slightly turned on? Jeez, could people really feel all of these things at one time? It was disgusting. Her mind, heart, and gut were on like three very intense, very different rollercoasters, and she felt like puking.

Honestly, she had no idea how Blossom was handling it all so well. She had more of a right to be pissed then Buttercup did. People like her and Julie were probably tearing Bloss's heart apart with all the oogling and touching and giggling, and there she was the seemingly perfect picture of unperturbedness.

Man, this wasn't how she had thought today was gonna go. This blew.

If she couldn't outright apologize to them then, for the sake of her sister, she'd just have to actively make a better effort. No more talking! She was a woman of action, and she'd start now!

From here on out, she'd look no more! For Blossom, she wouldn't allow herself to take another look over at them—at him, and his back, and his tattoos, and—Fuck!

Okay, that didn't count.

Starting _now_ , there would definitely be no more staring! No, instead, she'd just watch Bubbles ripping into Boomer and be content with it. She figured she owed Blossom that much.

"Butch! My gawd, do work out!"

Her eyes snapped back over.

"Flex for us!" Julie purred, petting his arms.

"Uuuh, why?" He asked, raising an eyebrow but complied anyway, and Buttercup could have screamed. Five seconds into her freaking chastity vow, and the universe was already kicking her in the crotch.

Was that even fair? Was this HIM's doing? Only they would do something this cruel!

"Hey, are you okay?" The sister in question asked her suddenly, and she froze.

Unclenching her fists, she tried to relax. She was almost completely sure Blossom actually couldn't read minds, but the testing she had conducted on this theory so far had always come back inconclusive.

"Yeah, uh, it's just, like…" She trailed off and made a face as she motioned to the group in front of them, "It's like too much."

Which wasn't a complete lie.

"Now, _you're_ being nice!" Robin snorted, "Isn't she hooking up with J.J.? The guy on the baseball team?"

"Yeah." Buttercup nodded. Jack Jones was nice, his batting average was good, but Butch was still at the top of the proverbial high-school food chain, so Buttercup didn't think Julie gave two shits about J.J. right now.

"Poor J.J." Blossom sighed, "I hope it's not a serious relationship."

"When has it ever been with her?" Robin rolled her eyes, "She walks all over guys all the time, like Michael, remember?"

"You won't let us forget," Blossom muttered, fighting a smile, and Robin's eyes narrowed.

"Shut it."

Buttercup ignored their friendly banter since she had already heard most of it all before. She really didn't get why, but Robin talked about Michael all the time. Apparently, he had been in Robin's bio class last year and had been Julie's lab partner. Buttercup had never personally seen it, but according to Robin, he was in _lust_ with Julie, who had clearly been using him for his bio reports.

Not that Buttercup could blame him. Julie was admittingly very pretty, and hormones were a hell of a drug. Paired with some of the serious self-confidence issues the poor guy had, it made sense to her why Mike would have liked the attention. It wasn't until their Bio teacher had changed the seating assignments, and Robin came barreling back into Mike's life that the kid had actually started to publicly smile a little more. And—

Hang on.

Speaking of lab partners, seriously, where did Elmer go? Did he go home sick or something? He had seemed fine in Chem.

"The point is," Robin declared with a hiss, "If there's a guy, she's all over them!"

"More like under," Buttercup muttered only half paying attention, as she looked for Elmer, happy for the distraction.

The comment slipped out her mouth before she could stop it. She cringed a bit as Robin began to cackle behind her hands, feeling slightly hypocritical for making fun of Julie, since they were basically sisters-in-arms now. Like everyone said, though, old habits die hard.

"BC, that's mean." Blossom nagged half-heartedly through a coy smile, and because she figured she needed to keep up appearances, she smiled along.

"My bad."

Julie's head whipped around towards them, so fast Buttercup was surprised her head didn't snap clean off, "What are _you_ three laughing about, hmm?" She cocked her hip to the side with her shirt still pulled down low and continued, "Something funny to you?"

"Definitely not some _thing_ , but some _one_." Robin snorted under her breath.

Buttercup's smile fell from her face, "Mind your own business Julie, we're just talking about a joke."

Julie's eyes narrowed, "Aw, Buttercup, isn't talking behind Bubbles' back a bit harsh? I know her outfit today was well—" Julie snorted and hide a mean smile behind her hand, "but she's your sister!"

Buttercup's jaw jutted to the side as she scoffed. Sisters-in-arms be damned. She wasn't anything like this twat.

"You wanna try that again?" She hissed at the blond, "Or am I gonna have'ta beat the apology out of you?"

"Oouff," Butch cringed, as he fixed Julie with a stare, "This isn't going to work out for you."

Julie huffed, " _Me_? This isn't going to work out for her."

She rolled her eyes with a dry laugh, "Oh, really? And what are you going to do, Julie? _Put a gun to my head? Ram a van into my house?_ How's that worked out so far?"

"You think you're funny?" The other girl growled, clenching her fists.

"Hilarious." Buttercup shot back quickly, "Speaking of jokes, how's your dad? Still in prison?"

"Oh, snappp." She heard someone mutter.

"Don't bring him into this," Julie sneered.

"I think I can."

"And why's that?"

"Victims of attempted murder don't get many perks, but this is one of them."

Julie's face contorted with anger, and Buttercup figured she was close to a typical Julie Smith psychotic break, "Like once!"

" _Once_!" Buttercup gaped, "Bullshit! More like _once_ _a year_! And it's not just your dad either!"

"Like you're not used to it! Anyway, they've tried killing you way more times!" Julie grabbed Butch's hand and shook it in the air, "Why's he so special, huh?"

"Don't bring him into this." Robin snapped, but Butch shrugged.

"Nah," He hummed nonchalantly, "that's a fair criticism."

Buttercup frowned and opened her mouth to answer, but Blossom, thankfully, intercepted before she could really spew out her feelings.

"He helped save this city and our lives." Blossom countered, "On top of that, all three have publicly apologized and are cooperating with their probation officers. Don't drag him into this, Julie. Next to you, he's a reformed _saint_."

So freaking articulate. Seriously, that had just confirmed it in her mind. Blossom was perfect for him. All Buttercup had planned on saying was how cool he was compared to Julie, but Blossom had like the way better answer.

"You've got to be kidding me." Julie hissed.

"No, that's how apologizing works." Blossom shook her head, calmly, "Do you not know how to do that either?"

Julie dropped Butch's arm and jabbed a finger in their direction, "You two can't sit up there and lecture me because I've done nothing wrong!"

"Oh, please!" Blossom scoffed, "Think of the root of the argument, Julie!"

"And what point were you trying to make again?"

"The point is," Buttercup growled loudly, "keep your hands off other people's _boyfriends_!"

The argument paused, and everyone, which very much included Butch, looked over at her. It took her about point-five milliseconds to piece together why and if the world would have ended right then, well, Buttercup would have been just fine with that.

"How _cute,_ but he's not your boyfriend, Buttercup." Julie started slowly, latching back onto Butch, as an unhinged smile crept onto her face.

"I didn't—" She started and stopped, her face on literal fire, before turning to Blossom, "I didn't mean it like that! We're _just_ friends!"

Her heart was beating like crazy, as she desperately searched Blossom's face for an ounce of hurt or betrayal, but it never came.

"I know you didn't." Blossom smiled at her and then, like the angel she was, glared at Julie, redirecting the argument, "And she does too. Really Julie, what would J.J. think about all of this?"

Blossom gestured to something, but Buttercup refused to look over. Blossom may have believed her, but she didn't want to see the look on Butch's face, not yet at least. Now wasn't the greatest time for her to get rejected. Maybe later, but right now in front of everyone would have really sucked.

"Me and J.J. have an understanding, so mind your own business, Blossom."

"For the love of—you're seriously telling me you don't see how this is making you look a bit desperate right now?" Blossom sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"A bit?" A voice behind them drawled, "Babe, it's completely obvious her hair isn't the only thing that's wet."

Blossom's face went red, as Buttercup jumped out of her skin and clutched a hand to her chest.

"Brick! Don't be so crude!" Her sister hissed and turned behind them to smack the boy over the head.

"Shit!" She yelled over Blossom, "How long have you been there!"

He swatted Blossom away and raised an amused eyebrow at her. Propping up further from where he had been laying between the bleacher seats, he shrugged, "The whole time. How did you miss that?"

She really shouldn't have been so surprised. As much as the two of them hated to admit it, Blossom and Brick were certainly a pair. After the boys had gone "good", Buttercup couldn't remember a day she hadn't seen them together. Even now, (and like, _seriously_ how could she have missed it), Blossom was using his bent knees as a backrest.

But Brick's presence made everything worse like she had just been caught doing something wrong. She didn't think Brick could read minds. Hell, she desperately hoped he couldn't, but if anyone could, it would be him.

Thankfully though, she wasn't the only one who had been surprised. Julie's mouth hung open wider than her own.

"Hey, Julie," He basically purred, and the other girl looked mortified, "say, what's the market price on one of those molds you mentioned earlier, huh? Blossom may not like using other people's bodies for profit, but I like money too much."

"Oh, be quiet Brick," Blossom frowned and shoved at his knees with her back, "Sex work should be a highly-respected profession, but it's still not a profession for minors."

"Wait. What the fuck am I missing?" Butch asked.

Brick looked back over at his brother, and a sly smile spread across his face, "Well, for one, you're going to be making me a pretty penny, you beautiful son'ova bitch."

"No!" Blossom protested and pulled Brick's hat low down his face, "That's not happening!"

Butch pulled a face, "Wha—"

"Jojo!" Coach's yelled across the field, as he walked towards them, cutting Butch off.

"What!" The three brothers yelled back in unison.

The coach sighed and corrected himself, "Butch!"

"I didn't do nothin'!" He quickly denied.

"No, what—that's…Just put your shirt back on kid, come on. School hours, school rules, clothes stay on."

Butch shrugged, removed the wet t-shirt from his shoulders, and shook the water out. The droplets splattered around them, making the group of girls closest to him squeal. One of them may have been Julie, but she didn't know for sure since she had found herself staring at the ground again—bright red.

"Coach!" Julie shrieked, now that their group had his attention, "Coach! I'm being harassed!"

"Smith!" Coach yelled back, "I didn't even have the patience for one psychotic break today, so don't even _think_ about it! Not today! Just go sit down somewhere else!"

"But—"

"Go!" Coach yelled, and blew down hard on his whistle, marching up to her and pushing her away.

Julie let out another indignant shriek and covered her ears from the onslaught, as she allowed Coach to push her away, "You're going to regret this Powerpuff Girls. I swear, you will!"

"Kin of evil, everyone." Buttercup muttered darkly, crossing her arms with a 'hmph'.

They watched Julie walk away for a moment before Brick broke the peaceful silence.

"You think we're saints?" He cooed and nudged at Blossom

"Get over yourself."

Brick snorted and stood, "Fat chance. It's all apart of my charm."

"Is that what you're calling it?" Blossom shot back, but Brick ignored her.

Instead, he stretched with a sigh, "Welp, now that the fun's all over, I'm going to go talk the dumbass out of jail time. Or extra probation, whichever."

Blossom turned to observe Boomer and nodded, "Okay, let me know if you need anything."

"Nah, I shouldn't." He shook his head and stared down at her, "That's Officer Peon, over there. He's an old juvenile officer. One of those 'they're good kids deep down' kind of guys. I'll be fine."

Blossom smiled up at him, "Sure, but just in case."

"Yeah, yeah," Brick waved her concern away, as he stepped down the bleachers, "don't worry babe, you're my favorite ace in the deck, I'll let you know."

Robin stood and stretched after he left, "Well, I'm gonna head over to those water fountains and see if they work. I'm dying of thirst, thanks to someone." She shot a look over at her.

"Don't be a baby." She accused, sticking her tongue out.

"Hey! You worked me practically to death! I can't feel my legs! I want some freaking water, man!"

Blossom laughed, "Alright, calm down. I'll come with you. If it doesn't work maybe I can help figure something out. Wanna come, BC?"

She shook her head and tried to ignore the pair of eyes that were staring holes into her head, "Nah, I'm good. Thanks, though."

The other two nodded and walked down the bleachers. She hoped maybe Butch would go with them, but he, of course, against her will, did not.

Instead, Butch stomped up the bleachers and sat next to her, "Your hair looks normal again."

She pulled at the tips of her hair that were beginning to curl as it dried, and sighed, "Yeah, oh well, it was going to happen eventually. Too bad all of Bubbles' work went down the drain." She thought of the curls that were no longer in Blossom's hair and sighed again, "Whatever."

His eyes jumped around for a moment, before landing on her again, "Well, it's not, like, bad like that or anything, so don't be bummed."

"Was that, like, a compliment?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, but he had caught her by surprise.

Butch had only complimented her two times beforehand. One, when he begrudgingly admitted she was "okay" at fighting, and two, when he said he had liked her jeans. And that last one had only happened like two weeks ago, so she hadn't been expecting another one so soon.

He stared at her for a moment, and she watched him grimace. A smile tugged at her mouth because it had always been funny watching Butch get caught off guard. Not nearly as funny as watching Brick get caught off guard, but still pretty funny.

"What?" She egged him on, the emotional roller-coaster she had been on dissipating for a brief moment, "You aren't going soft on me or somethin' are you?"

He recovered quickly after that, and snorted, shoving her away, "You fucking wish."

She laughed and didn't resist the shove, using its momentum to lay herself down on the bleachers. Without even thinking, she brought her legs up and laid them across his lap while her arms acted as a pillow for her head.

"Got to admit," She said with a smile, "it wouldn't hurt my ego."

" _Don't_ get used to it." He grumbled and used his elbows to lean back on the row of bleachers behind them.

"Too late." She shrugged, and he made a show of rolling his eyes.

She paused for a second before quickly adding on, "But like, uh, thanks, though."

"Yeah." He shrugged, and let his head lull up to look at the sky. She followed suit and watched the clouds breeze on by.

 _This is_ _nice_ , she caught herself thinking, and instantly, guilt seeped back into her thoughts.

She shifted awkwardly, but hopefully, not noticeably. She shouldn't have been enjoying herself around him. There was Blossom to think about. There was objectification to ponder. There was jealous anger she needed to work out. Julie had been right. He wasn't her boyfriend, and even though he hadn't said anything about it, she wondered if she had done anything to weird him out.

She laid there panicking until, suddenly, he broke out laughing.

(He could read minds! She knew it!)

"What?" She asked trying to sound as causal as possible and propped up to get a better look at him.

He shook his head and smiled at her, "Nothin' just," He snorted again and the sound pulled at the corner of her own mouth, "what Brick said, 'her hair's not the only thing that's wet', I just got it."

She tried to fight the smile off her face, seriously, she did, "You—" She shook her head, licking her lips, "You seriously _just_ got _that_?"

He laughed again, "I know! I can't believe either, but in my defense, there was a lot going! Did Smith really ram a car through your house"

She laughed with him, "Her whole family did, more then once. It started when we were younger."

"Seriously?"

"That whole family's crazy."

"Who's isn't?"

She smiled at him and settled back down, "Don't ask me. My family's the one that attracts them all."

They fell back into a comfortable silence and Buttercup relaxed. The breeze outside was nice and her and Butch were just hanging out. That was all. Just like friends would. And 'just friends' was okay.

"Hey," She spoke up again and he turned back to her, "by the way, have you seen Elmer?"

Butch paused for a moment, then carelessly shrugged, "Nah."

"Hmm." She hummed and turned her attention back to the clouds.

* * *

 **A/N:** can you really call it a ppg fanfic if Bubbles doesn't get to play a lil dress up? To clear things up when _I_ write them, they're _all_ fashion disasters:

\- Blossom dresses like a mom who's late to the PTA meeting because her business conference ran late—I'm talking mom jeans/button-downs/scrunchies/STRESS

\- Buttercup and Butch dress like their walking Nike endorsements, but Butch has an affection for punk aesthetics and Buttercup's more on the "I was a probably a camp counselor at one point" side of the spectrum.

\- Bubbles dresses with her heart and sometimes her heart attempts to pull off 15 different fads/trends at once

\- Boomer dresses in a way that a thirteen-year-old who just discovered graphic tees would think was cool

\- Brick, who simultaneously looks like he's just woken up and also hasn't slept in ten years, unironically wears crocs, and that's all I have to say about that.

Bellum, Princess, and HIM are the only ones who can dress in this universe. You can't change my mind.

If you've made it this far thanks! I wrote this instead of studying for finals, so feed my ego and let me know what you think!

(rip Elmer)


End file.
